harlequin romances as composting material

[Tater]

I am planning some modified sqare foot gardening and am looking for some advice......

in researching lasangna gardening they use newpapers in layers with organic material to create some planting medium.

anyway......I am planning on filling my garden beds with a lot of waste paper as i can find, but i might be comming up short. I plan to fill the topmost part with commercial potting soil.

I was thinking, the local thrift store sells grocery bags full of paperbacks for cheap, and was wondering if i cold use this stuff as filler/drainiage/wick/moisture holding material. anyone have some thoughts?

[Carl 1 Lucky Texan]

Well, normally, you would want to avoid the slick/colorful colred paper material. Due to plasticizers and maybe dye made with metallic salts/oxides. But, the use of 5-6-7 layers of newspaper, or even cardboard, is to kill the grass at the location you want to create the bed. Use of Roundup before placing compost or topsoil,etc. in the are would work about as well. I suspect the interior pages of paperback books would degrade about the same as newspaper OF THE SAME NUMBER OF LAYERS, but most of those books are too thick in their normal form - even if opened in the center and layed out. I suppose, if the paperbacks were beneath quite a few inches of soil, such that they did not interfere with plantiing, it might be OK. But at that point, one wonders if that much thickness of soil would'nt be sufficient to kill the grass anyway.

Here's my humble attempt at a modified lasagna-type bed construction;

do think, if the covers were torn off first, shredding paperbacks and placing them in a compost pile would be OK. Not sure what kinda adhesive is in the spine though.

Carl

[Tater]

ok, I realized that I could make rasied beds with boards, carboard boxes and whatever, I have a lot of tires the previous owner had abandoned and was wondering if I could use them for my raised beds? black rubber tends to absorb sunlight to help heat the earth in the early spring for ealier planting times, they cost nothing for me to use (and cost $2.50 each to get rid of).

someone want to tell the pros and cons?

[Carl 1 Lucky Texan]

A quick 'google' indicates tires tend to be a problem for most plants (high zinc in the rubber and some heavy metals from any exposed steel belts) and are actually considered toxic waste.

Carl

[Carl 1 Lucky Texan]

Perhaps if you tell the group, as precisely as possible, what you'd like to accomplish in the garden, somone can guide you to some books and websites. Do you'need' raised beds?(if it's a question of bending down or working from a wheelchair - there are alternatives like 'earth boxes' and straw bale gardening) Do you want to grow vegetables or ornamental plants? How many plants? What zone do you live in? etc.

Carl

[Carl 1 Lucky Texan]

lots of good links in this article;

Carl

[George.com]

suitable for earth boxes as you call them or growing potatos, tomatos etc. They could also conceivably be used as edging for a raised garden, similar to using tyres of build rammed earth houses. It would take up a lot of room mind.

rob

[<usenet2006]

Try searching on

Some people have mentioned (here and on rec.gardens.edible) using tyres/tires for potatoes. Planting in the middle, and then stacking up more as the summer proceeds.

[Alana Gibson]

Here's a link to a magazine article that may be helpful:

've had very good results using car tires as planters for Gardenias and tractor tires for giant flowered Hibiscus.