When container gardening it’s necessary to have good drainage holes in the bottom of your pots to let the excess water drain out of the potting soil. This keeps the root zone from staying too wet and waterlogging the rots. The drawback though is these holes allow your potting soil to escape too. To prevent your soil from falling out line the bottom of your containers with old newspapers. The water will still drain, but the potting soil will stay put.

Is there a spot in your garden where the water naturally collects, creating a mud hole? An easy, temporary solution to this is to create a stepping stone in the depression using layers of newspaper. It will soak up extra water and can be worked into the soil at the end of the season.

After harvesting everything in the fall and removing plants for the season, many gardeners choose to work the ground in preparation for the winter. When left exposed pesky weeds are one of the first plants to pop up in the spring, making it necessary to get rid of them before planting. Spread a layer of newspapers over the exposed soil surface after you till the ground in the fall. Winter snow and rain will start to break them down, but they will provide enough cover the following spring to inhibit weed seed germination before it’s time to plant. Then simply pull them up, or poke holes in the newspaper to plant your garden.

To keep your compost pile working the way it should, you have to maintain a good balance between carbon and nitrogen materials. Carbon materials, or brown materials, are “dry” items such as pine needles, corn stalks, and dried leaves. Nitrogen-rich materials include fresh grass clippings and food scraps from your kitchen. If your pile is short on carbon, add shredded newspapers and mix the pile well. This is an easy way to increase the brown material in your compost pile.