mulch

I'm struggling to keep the weeds down. I like wide pathways in the garden so that I can trundle my wheelbarrow around easily. But all that unplanted space invites weeds unless you have some way of suppressing them. Hay as a mulch works, but not 100%. So, my next step -- which probably should have been the first step -- is laying down 6-10 sheets of newspaper in my pathways, then over it, laying the hay.

And you know what's great? Hay, chipped bark, leaf mold and compost can be hard to find, involves time and effort to make, or if you go out and buy it, it's expensive. But newspapers? I'm finding that the local corner store is often very glad to give you yesterdays' old papers. I have obtained stacks and stacks that way!