Cardboard Substitutes in a Lasagna Garden

I have been reading about lasagna gardening and sheet mulching as a no-till startup method for a 1/10 acre to 1/4 acre small market garden farm and at least one of the startup materials seems to be difficult to store and obtain in bulk. The usual recommended bottom layer in a lasagna garden is either corrugated shipping cardboard or newspaper. Cardboard has the problem of being too bulky to store in large quantities until it's ready to be used and newspaper has the problem of it becoming increasingly harder to find as more newspaper customers switch to the digital edition of the news. One material I can think of that might work as a substitute for newspaper is brown parcel paper since it is sold in compact rolls in the United States, doesn't have any toxic dyes or clays, and is likely just as biodegradable as newspaper without the problem of potentially toxic inks being used in the paper.

A while ago I watched a YouTube video from the channel called The Dutch Farmer where he sets up a large lasagna garden with brown rolls of what appears to be  some kind of corrugated carboard roll. If this material is something that can be purchased cheaply at a local hardware store, it might also be a more compact alternative to shipping cardboard. It also has the advantage of being much thicker than parcel paper so plants covered with this material would be less likely to penetrate the layer before the end of the first growing season.


I am posting here to find out if any forum members here have further experience starting large lasagna garden beds. If so, what strategies did you use for obtaining the necessary materials for the bottom cardboard/paper layer without running out of storage space? The current property I'm considering renting won't have space for a large barn to store a large pile of shipping cardboard. Any biodegrabable paper material that comes in convenient rolls will save me precious space when starting my market garden out.

I've watched the video you mentioned so your post caught me eye.
I'm waiting to see if someone else here will suggest a source for the rolled corrugated paper. I can't imagine it being very expensive.

Maybe one of these will work for you:

https://www.amazon.com/Single-face-Corrugated-Flute-Cardboard-Roll/dp/B07772C7B2

https://www.amazon.com/Corrugated-Cardboard-recycled-Recycled-Recycle/dp/B09SBRQWWG

If I didn't have access to cardboard or newspaper I would either smother the area with tarps until everything was dead and then mulch with wood chips, or use rolls of craft paper to substitute for the cardboard/newspaper.  18"x100' is less than $15 a roll.  Not really cheap, but not terrible.  It would be a big time saver since you can just roll it out.  Maybe you could buy it cheaper in bulk.

I like a thick mat of wet leaves, but depending on what you're trying to kill it might be tough.  Every fall I mulch in new planting areas with all the leaves that fall into my yard and it has worked well for me.

Watching the video, that looks like corrugated wrap that would be utilized for shipping protection. We utilize it in my industry to protect pallets of finished goods.

Example- https://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/S-1477/Paper-Cushioning/Corrugated-Wrap-Roll-A-Flute-60-x-250?pricode=WB0441&gadtype=pla&id=S-1477&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAD_uetPR3sKBEBnjjxO121iRsBNLU&gclid=CjwKCAjwn6LABhBSEiwAsNJrjiB5c0ZL0i97SZhZ5BmGlDFhOlpADAbAZ9JbRgTkVzk2xoVEXDnkLBoCmsAQAvD_BwE

An alternative that some folks can source for free is plain old kraft paper. It is unbleached, does not have dyes on it like newsprint, and in roll form can be utilized quickly and effectively.

I'm assuming the garden location is separate from the property you live on.  While I currently have a stash of cardboard I picked up over the winter and stored, when I was working on my garden expansion last year I covered the area with a heavy MIL black plastic to kill the weeds.  When I acquired cardboard, I just rolled the plastic back and immediately put it on the ground and covered with wood chips.  Of course I wasn't dealing with an area near the size you are either.  

I do have a stash of brown packing paper I use for other projects and it was all obtained as packing material for stuff we ordered for our business. Even had other people saving for me and I roll it up and keep it in a large tote until I need it.  

What about burlap?  I know there's different weaves and it may not completely exclude light, but would be porous and biodegradable.  The only concerning factor with that is the new burlap I've encountered comes with a "smell" that may be some sort of chemical?

I can’t run out of storage because I store it outside. This has been out under the snow, pre-conditioning all winter and is now ready to use. Sometimes I just stack it up and put a couple concrete blocks on top of it to fight the wind.