Subject: Shredded office paper

From: Paula Stillman <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 20 May 1996 10:25:20 +1000

Hi growers:
Some months ago I wrote asking if anyone had experience with using
shredded office paper in the garden.   The replies were divided.   So I
have used it in several ways and thought you might like to know the
results.   It has not been very successful in the compost, neither an open
stack nor the enclosed bins.   Perhaps I made the layer too thick.   Next
time I might attempt mixing it with the straw or grass layer.   What I found
with my first efforts was that it packed down into a thick impermeable
layer and did not get broken down at the same rate, or even stopped the
breaking down of the layers above.
However, it has been quite successful as a weed suppressent and was
particularly successful under the strawberry plants.   The slugs and
snails seemed to be deterred to some extent.
The next experiement will be to use it instead of straw to build up around
potatoes.
Those of you living in the country probably find this all quite irrelevant,
but as I'm an urbanite and work in an office also, I'm surrounded by the
stuff and hate to see a free source of compostable material going to
waste!
Keep happy folks.    Paula

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From: Jennifer Peltier <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 20 May 1996 07:35:26 PDT

When you compost with paper are you turning the pile with any
regularity (once a week or more)?  Also, paper is considered a "brown"
material or source of carbon.  As you observed when layers of paper
are too thick they will mat up in the compost pile.  My suggestion is
to build layers of roughly the same amount of "green" (nitrogen
sources) and brown materials.  Build one layer consisting of brown and
then green material, wet down just to dampen (don't soak) and then
stir the layers together before building another layer.  Continue
until the bin is full.  Turn this pile at least once a week and wet as
needed.  One should obtain good compost within 6 weeks. In addition
a good manageable pile that reaches the adequate temperatures for
decomposition is 3'x3'x3' (27 cu.ft.).  I have made compost that
consisted of newspaper and manure only and it was wonderful.  

Glad to hear the paper is working well as a mulch for your plants.  I
have used newpaper for this and also dried grass clippings.  It really
extends the time between watering for my veggies.  

Take care, Jennifer