If, like thousands of Brits, you are sick and tired of weeding, don’t fret. There is a simple way to cut right back on weeding and it’s cheap too.
This gardening hack is a great way to give precious nutrients to your garden, and make maintaining it easier. All it takes is an afternoon in the garden and a few cardboard boxes. Amy May, who shares videos online under the username @ThePlantRealm, calls this “the cardboard method”.
This is also known as sheet mulching, or even the lasagna method because of the layers it involves. In her video, Amy lays several flattened cardboard boxes around a tree sapling planted in her flower bed. Once the cardboard is in place, she waters it thoroughly with the garden hose and then covers it evenly with potting soil.
Comments on the video were thrilled by the idea, with one woman writing: “This is such a smart idea thanks! I see less weed eating in my future”
Another said: “I use cardboard as weed suppression in my orchard garden, the worms love carbon fibre.”
While it may look odd, this method helps to stop weeds growing through the soil by blocking sunlight. As the cardboard breaks down naturally over time, it enriches the soil with nutrients like carbon and helps the grass to grow.
Make sure that if you want to use this method, you remove all staples and tape from the boxes and ensure that the cardboard is untreated.
Treated cardboard can leach chemicals into the soil and stop anything from growing – not just the unwanted weeds.