Just getting a garden area ready for spring.

[murray hill farm]

Four 4 by 8 ft. raised sections constructed...using left over lumber and posts as materials. 6 in high. Next I will dig down into them a few more inches and clear out any growth (basically field grass). I have left over from my move a lot of cardboard boxes and was wondering if it would be OK to lay down the sheets of cardboard from the boxes onto the cleared area for weed control before adding good dirt to fill up the planting boxes. What do ya think? Would it be OK to use this cardboard in this way? I have used newspapers in the past, but am not sure about the cardboard.

[Blue Gardener]

1. Sounds okay to me

I would think the cardboard would break down just as the newspapers do.

[murray hill farm]

2. I did a search on line...

and saw a bunch of sites that recommended it for lasagna type gardening. I don't plan on doing that, but seems like it will work. This is a good thing since I have a bunch of left over cardboard boxes...and now they won't go to waste. I think I will put in the cardboard and water it down now and just put enough dirt on top to hold it down until I get some top soil brought in to fill up the the raised boxes. Thanks for responding, Blue Gardener. I don't think this gardening site gets a lot of action this time of year.

[bvar22]

3. Hi Pat!!!

Welcome home!
We use cardboard as a weed barrier outside the boxes (walkways & borders) and as a mulch under-layer around ornamental plants and berry bushes. We avoid the shiney coated kind, and cardboard that has been painted.

You might consider using a thin layer (2 or 3 sheets) of newspaper inside the boxes instead instead of cardboard because it breaks down quicker, and planting is only a few of months away!

We find whole cardboard pieces over a year after we have put them down, and they would be an effective root barrier at the bottom of your boxes.
If you are directly on top of the hard red clay layer, cardboard probably will be OK because there will not be too much root penetration into the red clay the first year.

But I'm just guessing.
I don't really know.

:hi: