Hate junk mail? Turn this unwanted mail into garden mulch with this easy gardening life hack.
All you have to do is look into your mail box and you will see how much junk mail you get on a daily basis.
Junk mail is unwanted, wastes paper and other materials and ends up on our garbage heaps in huge numbers all over the country.
Let’s put it to use in an environmentally positive way.
Got Junk Mail? Make garden Mulch!
Most cities now have recycling for junk mail, but it can also be used in your garden too! Get the junk mail off of your desk and into your garden where it can feed your plants for months.
Remove any envelopes that have cellophane windows. Plastic will not break down in the garden, so we want to make sure that is gone.
Put the junk mail through a paper shredder if you have one. If not, tear it into small sized pieces. Be sure to remove any staples you find – you don’t want to be digging in the dirt and cut yourself with a rusty staple!
Place a 6 inch layer of the shredded paper around your plants.
Water the paper well. It will settle down to about 2 inches or so.
Top the paper with a thin layer of top soil, compost, or organic leaf mulch.
The paper will completely break down over the course of a season or two and your soil will be amended nicely. The earthworms love paper too, so they will find this tasty mulch!
For more gardening tips, please visit The Gardening Cook on Facebook.
CAPERNIUS
Saturday 9th of May 2015
Another thing junk mail can be used for is fire blocks/fire bricks.
Take a 5 gallon bucket & fill it with your shredded junk mail. next, fill the bucket with water....leave it sit for about 5 or 10 minutes, then take a drill & paint stirrer &blend the paper with the water. in almost no time at all, what you will have is a paper mush. put this mush into a block type mold & leave it sit for 4 or 5 days to dry out. the tighter the block the longer it will burn & the more BTUs it will produce.
admin
Sunday 10th of May 2015
Thanks for the great tips! Carol
14ritt
Saturday 6th of July 2013
Might want to remove the cellophane Windows first
Saturday 6th of July 2013
Of course. Thanks for the reminder.
Carol