Beginner Gardening: How to mulch veggies?, 1 by BDale60

BDale60 wrote:
T-Jill,

We used an commercial organic mulch for the first time this year, based on a variety of circumstances, but in prior years (and in the future) we plan to continue using a homemade compost-mulch based on rabbit manure and wood shavings. ("Conan" one of the pet rabbits featured in the accompanying photo). We have a large batch of this stuff "cooking" in a pile at a farm friend's acreage right now, in anticipation of using it as our primary mulch next season once it is finished. Previously we had used a compost tumbler in our backyard and the finished product was an effective mulch.

I have no direct experience using newspaper, but I don't off hand see why it wouldn't work well. I quote from one of the classic "compost texts", The Rodale Book of Composting:

"Many kinds of colored paper, even those with colored inks, can be used for composting or mulch" (p.99).

This source goes on to emphasize the importance of chopping it or shredding it in order to facilitate breakdown for the purpose of compost, but I know many utilize the technique of using full sheets of newspaper as mulch. Perhaps somebody with more direct experience doing so will chime in. I wish they would, since I'd be interested in learning more about it.