By  Angela Thiel, Guest Blogger

How many of you helped your parents, grandparents or elderly neighbor in the garden as a child?  My first summer job, I was 10 years old. It was a brisk walk up the hill from our home, reach the top, and turn left a quarter mile down an old dirt road, crossing a bridge with two ponds on either side covered in water lilies, bullfrogs and snakes. I always hesitated when crossing that bridge; the bridge was in need of a diamond-shaped sign with a stark yellow background featuring a slithering silhouette of a serpent accompanied by one word: RUN. My reluctance in crossing could not be entertained, for there was an elderly no-nonsense woman waiting for me on the other side of the bridge. I hurried on for the last segment of my journey ignoring the magnificent gardenias or grand oaks as not to be scolded for my tardiness.  

My destination was a 1950s typical brick ranch-esque home. It had been flooded three times in previous years, the damage was apparent on the interior of the home with only concrete foundation floors and minimal furnishings. The interior of the home in all its meagerness was rewarded as I stepped out the backdoor to a garden flourishing with prosperity. This was the home of Mrs. Pry. An RN who loved her garden, Pinch scotch and applied WD-40 to her knees for arthritis. She had hired me to come help her in the garden. 

My first day working for her was to become my every day chore of working in her garden. It seemed she had saved every newspaper within a 50-mile radius to roll logs for edging her garden. The log was comparable to the way newspapers are home delivered; only quite thicker, without the color print and banded with twine. It was a great economical and eco-friendly log for edging the flower beds. Mrs. Pry was ahead of her times! 

During my teens, my interest in gardening waned. In my early twenties, my passion returned with obsession. I entered college for a horticulture degree, started my own landscape company and returned to using newspaper. When creating a new raised flower bed, the first thing I would do is lay newspaper down to smother the weeds. It works fabulously! 

After sixteen years working in landscape design & installation, my next move was to farming. Unbeknownst to me, newspaper would join me on the farm, too. 

Now you might be thinking "well, of course you line the chicken coop with newspaper or use it for mulching the crops."  Those are all good uses.  Yet we use paper to start our vegetable seeds that require transplanting--with the help of simple wooden tool called a "Potmaker" purchased online at Richters.

You, too, can make little transplant pots for your seedlings in 3 easy steps: 

1. Cut 3.5” x 10” lengths of newspaper.
2. Take your first strip; roll the entire length of the strip around the top part of the tool.
3. Place tool on base, give it a strong mash, with a little twist.

This winter, I’ll sit on the sofa in the evenings making hundreds of these pots with anticipation of spring. I’ll hope you will join me in letting newspaper make a “print in your garden.” 

Image credit: author's private collection.

Angela Thiel farms and blogs near Houston at St. Fairsted Farm.