Brown paper bag into mulch?

Question

I want to put all the brown paper bags i get from the stores to good use. Is there anyway i can shred them into mulch or something like that? Should i worry about the dyes if they are placed around fruit trees/bushes....any ideas for them is great

Answer 1

try using them under the mulch as a type of weed barrier. it won't work as well as the black paper but it will help and you won't accidently rip up everything in the flower bed next spring/

Answer 2

Absolutely.  And if you have a compost pile, they make a fantastic composting ingredient. They're a great source of carbon, and the worms love them.  Shred them up first, and if you want them to make good compost, get them nice and wet as well.

I wouldn't worry about the dyes myself. Most newspapers these days use soy-based dyes, which are absolutely safe, and I suspect that a lot of brown paper bags do as well.  But if you're very cautious about what you put on food plants, you might want to take a closer look at the bags first.  I know a lot of the brown grocery bags in use at stores around here have writing on them specifying that they're garden-safe.  (Then, I live in a very "green" city, so that might not be so common elsewhere.)

Another good use for paper bags is laying them down unshredded in thick layers underneath a looser mulch, to smother weeds for paths and such.  You can also use them unshredded as the "smother layer" in lasagna gardening or sheet mulching, to prepare a new bed for the next season.