This is a good publication on types of mulch and their advantages http://extension.missouri.edu/...

Yes, it looks like the word is out now that I'm part of the family, I'm a Dad and a Grandpa.

I was wondering also about the health risks of colored inks, and I've come to the conclusion that paper mulch is safe to use in the flower garden, but you should be sure to only shred black inks (carbon based) if using it with the edibles.

After applying the mulch on a wind-free day, I sprinkled lightly with the garden hose to wet it down and keep it in place.

Has anyone experimented with composting paper shreddings?

The earth worms love the shredded paper. It doesn't take long for them to start working it into the soil.

>> Corey- we learned that the glossy papers are actually just fine to use. The ink is the same. The issue is that the glossy makes it harder for the water to penetrate, and thus they break down a bit slower.

With all my rain, I don't expect that to be a problem.

I have plenty of corrugated cardboard from work for the bottom layer of new raised beds, and I like pine bark for top-dress mulch, so I would only put paper into a compost heap. My heap is small, cold and slow, so that should give inks PLENTY of time to break down.

Saturday I finally scored about 8 pounds of coffee grounds from a Starbucks: now that's the only one I'll go back to.

I wonder if you can lure worms from one terrace to another by first baiting the lower terrace with coffee grounds, waiting a few weeks, and then baiting the upper level? Entice them to drill little uphill drainage tunnels.

We had no earth worms here 11 years ago when we bought this place. Just cement hard clay. It took several years before we started finding earthworms. Now they are everywhere and they love the areas we put the newspaper on.

I use as much paper as I can shred. Finally, I got a tall laundry hamper to keep paper for shredding--a major component is tea wrappers from my green tea bags--as well as mistakes when using the printer. ( always make a few of those and it eats up a lot of high quality paper. One time my shredder broke down and I made a mistake of not replacing it with a "confetti" shredder. The larger shreds still work though. Cover the shreds with yard prunings, and cover that with cardboard after a good soaking. Replace cardboard if any weeds show through. You can put leaves, grass, pine bark mulch or whatever you like to look at that is organic and will break down over winter. This is one great way to turn really weedy soil in to great garden soil. You can pull away some strips of cardboard and start with some green manures--such as rape, buckwheat, or winter rye, as a second phase of no-dig soil building.

I don't use glossy or colored paper. Most junk mail will make good shredded mulch but toss out the colored photographs. If you can get brown paper grocery sacks, it looks better than white, but then brown paper sacks are a rarity these days. actually I do use some colored paper as long as it is not glossy. I understand that colored inks now are mostly made from soy, so they are perfectly fine for the garden. I guess they don't make Sunday newspaper comics any more--you could read Superman one last time before feeding it to the worms.

I have been using shredded paper as mulch for several years. Just make sure to wet it down and put shredded leaves, etc. on top of it. I also put it in my compost pile. This is also an effort to combat identity fraud, as any paper that has any sensitive information on it goes into the confetti shredder. I doubt that anyone would think of pawing through my compost pile to obtain my information.