This is the first I have heard about the second type of (chemicals) glue along the seams of the box. And the first I have heard that the glue between the layers is starch-based and therefore safe. Thank you for this. The other theoretical worry is that cardboard made from recycled cardboard may have small amounts of all the bad things we don't want (from old plastic labels, type, colored ink etc)
Thank you🎉🎉🎉❤❤❤ for clarifying what parts to discard or refrain from using and which parts are ok and safe to use. NOW I am more confident because I trust you to tell us the truth of what to use & how to use the safe parts. May GOD bless you for being honest!
Thank you for all of your beneficial organic gardening advice. I especially like that you have revived the simple methods for a productive garden from your Great Grandfather. Absolutely priceless! I thoroughly enjoy each and every video.😊
I've always used cardboard when I start new garden beds. Whether raised or in ground there is always a layer or two of cardboard on the bottom. Plastic and labels get peeled off and that's about it. As far as paper, I shred everything that is not colored and glossy and it goes into the the compost pile. We all want to garden organically in healthy soil but based on many of the comments in this video, we have a tendency to overthink every piece of paper. I suppose now I worry more about pesticides in manure than I do about glue in cardboard.
I gave up using shredded newspaper years ago; not because of any concerns about toxic inks but because newspaper tends to compact when wet and excludes the air needed to compost properly.
I would also like to add that anything that is waterproof typically contains pfas which is also known as forever chemicals that do not break down in our environment and can very well be leached into your gardening soil very easily. STAY AWAY FROM ANYTHING NON STICK AND WATERPROOF PERIOD! Love this video! Thank you sharing and educating! *Love the planet you inhabit ☺️🌍
This is good! I use only brown cardboard, remove all tape and 90% of the labels, as well as any staples. I have been leaving the corner glue, but will re-think that. I'm mostly using cardboard for weed suppression. I'll have to watch more of your videos! Thanks.
I'm trying to get past my concern over chemicals which might be present in cardbord in my garden, you video made me feel a bit more at ease about it, thanks 🙂
Wow, I didn't know that there was so muc so know and to look for when using cardboard for your garden! 😯 Thank you very much, this was extremely interesting! 😊👍
thank you so much for this video. I guess I need to start cutting off the section of the box where it is glues together. I just started using cardboard so this video was very helpful.
Thank you, Jag! I tried calling manufacturers of products to find out if their boxes were compostable. Now I know.... thanks to you and David the Good. 😀 😢 (The manufacturers didn't know!)
Awesome! A lot of what people try to accomplish with cardboard is 'Sheet Mulching,' which can dramatically reduce the amount of moisture loss from the soil (water needed for irrigation). Shredded mulch also does this to some degree, but not nearly as well as carpet/sheet mulching. The problem is that it can look rather unsightly having sheets of cardboard laying all over the place, so folks then try to put soil on top of the cardboard or even regular mulch. If you want it to look nicer or if you're in an area that is fairly damp then it makes sense to shred the cardboard. If you are on the ranch, farm, or otherwise out of sight then leaving sheet of cardboard on the ground is not so bad. Quite often various projects come to pass that will create opportunities to put stuff on top of the cardboard over time.
@@terrykellyphotography6171 I bought 'garden staples' , I punch them through the cardboard and use them to hold it down in windy conditions. Rocks work as well. There is no 'stapler' needed for these staples, hands only.
The best thing I have found is brown pizza boxes that I use on the path of my gardens to keep the weeds down. TP rolls go in the compost. Anything I question, I don’t use.
We are planning on renovating our front yard in summer of 2023. Instead of buying weed fabric, my wife and I are collecting cardboard boxes from our work. We are removing all tape and as much of the labels as we can. However, if it’s a pain to remove some of the labels we are leaving it on there. Since we are not using it on our garden beds that grow vegetables and it’s just to help kill the grass we are not being too picky. The plan is to cut the grass as far down as possible, cover it with 1-2 layers of cardboard boxes and then laying 3-4 inches of Woodchips from a local arborist on top of the cardboard. I feel that with landscaping the rules don’t have to be so strict. While there is still the risk of polluting the soil of my yard, I do feel that nature will take it’s course and work things through over the years. Thank you for the peace-of-mind video though, Jag! Colorado, USA
Great video. I also stsy away from cardboqrd that contained cloth textles from couches/ home decor to clothing. Depending upon where the ckoyh came from and traveled through, a lot of chemicals are not only allowed but required.
I have a bunch of packing paper that is about to go into use in my garden. It isn't as brown as brown paper bags, but is also a lot darker than bleached white paper.
Staples are steel, thus are primarily iron. Soil here where I live is acidic and will break down ferrous metals fast. I’ve seen metals listed on safety data sheets used in inks for labels, but you’ve got metals naturally occurring in the garden’s soil much of the time. I’d be more concerned with pesticides from neighboring properties. Then again, I’d only use cardboard for non-food landscaping.
Sharp objects in the soil, small or large, put we gardeners at risk. One such risk is tetanus. The bacterium that causes tetanus is called Clostridium tetani. The bacterium can survive in a dormant state in soil and animal feces. It's essentially shut down until it discovers a place to thrive.Cuts or wounds exposed to soil or manure A foreign body in a wound, such as a nail or splinter. If you're up to date on your tetanus shots (every 10 years) good. If not, be careful.
I saw in another video that cardboard can attract & make a perfect environment for termites to thrive in also. I now only compost boxes (good ways away from the house) and occasionally toss some in the cementer of my garden tower for the worms. Thanks so much for making these videos & helping people learn gardening skills in such a clear and concise format! Looking forward to subscribing & watching more!
Boxes that contained bicycles are not degrading in my garden, they followed the rules you outlined, but they turned into kind of...slightly oily feeling layer of compacted cardboard.
@@EvolutionWendy I've never had cardboard that did not decompose so am not sure about the bicycle boxes. But one of the things I do is completely wet down the cardboard, both top and bottom before covering with other materials, especially if I am using a double layer. Almost always the following year, often sooner, the cardboard is gone.
I am actually a cosplayer who is working with cardboard because, though it is harder to work with than typical EVA foam, I wanted to save money and be environmentally conscious while I'm at it. But it looks like I can't expect to take my taped, glued, varnished, acrylic-painted cardboard costumes and just bury them to rot when I'm done with them; Will I have to resign myself to just getting them burned+entombed in a proper landfill or is there a way I could de-toxify them to make them more compostable?
I'm even using some alternative construction methods of tabs, holes and fishing line to cut down on glue; but could that even be worth the extra effort?
Interesting, never had this question before lol, look into environmentally friendly glue made with starches and environmentally friendly paper tape instead of plastic. Fishing line is not good. I would say, use as much paper and natural tape and natural glue as possible.
this is so helpful! I had heard that newspaper uses all natural ink (like the colored grocery store ads) so I regularly use them in the garden...I also shred all my bills (white paper). I guess I need to rethink things. Thank you!!
Yes, the newspaper does use ink that is vegetable dye ink , however the white paper is bleached. I personally wouldn't use newspaper in the garden and send it back for recycling.
GOOD GRIEF!! I've been shredding up my white paper bills for the compost pile all this time. I guess us old birds CAN benefit from learning some new things. Thanks Jag.
I would add that the biggest problem with bleached paper is highly toxic dioxins. This was a major problem when chlorine gas was used to bleach paper pulp. In the modern world, chlorine gas is no longer used. This includes the US and EU. Today there are two methods in use, ECF - Elementary Chlorine Free (free from chlorine gas), and TCF - Totally Chlorine Free. ECF uses chlorine substances but does not cause these toxic dioxins that chlorine gas does. In most cases, therefore, you don't need to worry about composting white paper, as long as you know where the paper comes from. However, there are countries where chlorine gas is still used today.
I use plain brown cardboard slip sheets and they work wonderfully as weed barriers and break down nicely. No plastic, no ink, nor staples or tape. My garden produces heavily.
Cardboard boxes may contain insecticide, items shipped via containers are pretty much always doused with insecticide in order to prevent translocation of pest species, which is why containers are opened and vented well before anyone goes in to unload them.
Thanks, very helpful breakdown. We have a wood burner at home and I put the ash on my compost. Should I follow the same rules for cardboard/paper or will the fire get rid of the toxic chemicals?
Well-burnt ash no longer has any significant amounts of organic material left. Therefore small amounts of organic toxins can be rendered harmless in your burner. The ashes are the inorganic substances that cannot be burned and are therefore left over. Unfortunately, heavy metals belong to the inorganic substances and therefore become part of the ash.
The one site I shared this to has had 28n likes and 14 shares today; it has been up about 6 hours. Thought you might like to know who popular this video is! Several hours later: 71 responses and 17n shares. You are a hit!
A+ to you for making a concise and informative video that gets right to the important points.
This is the first I have heard about the second type of (chemicals) glue along the seams of the box. And the first I have heard that the glue between the layers is starch-based and therefore safe. Thank you for this. The other theoretical worry is that cardboard made from recycled cardboard may have small amounts of all the bad things we don't want (from old plastic labels, type, colored ink etc)
I had been shredding used white paper and adding it to my compost! I had no idea it was bleached!! Thank you🙌🏽
Thank you🎉🎉🎉❤❤❤ for clarifying what parts to discard or refrain from using and which parts are ok and safe to use. NOW I am more confident because I trust you to tell us the truth of what to use & how to use the safe parts. May GOD bless you for being honest!
Thank you for all of your beneficial organic gardening advice. I especially like that you have revived the simple methods for a productive garden from your Great Grandfather. Absolutely priceless! I thoroughly enjoy each and every video.😊
Glad you like the videos :)
Thank you Jag Singh! You have made me a smarter person. *You are one amazing man!*
Always a favorite to watch. So well explained, thank you!!
I've always used cardboard when I start new garden beds. Whether raised or in ground there is always a layer or two of cardboard on the bottom. Plastic and labels get peeled off and that's about it. As far as paper, I shred everything that is not colored and glossy and it goes into the the compost pile. We all want to garden organically in healthy soil but based on many of the comments in this video, we have a tendency to overthink every piece of paper.
I suppose now I worry more about pesticides in manure than I do about glue in cardboard.
He essentially said the same. Just take off the glossy, bleached, heavily glued and stapled parts and you have brown cardboard, perfectly usable.
I gave up using shredded newspaper years ago; not because of any concerns about toxic inks but because newspaper tends to compact when wet and excludes the air needed to compost properly.
I'm always grateful for your garden knowledge💐💐
Thank you for the thorough explanation. I was getting incomplete answers from Google
Thank you so much for doing all this research.
Thank You! Verry informative!
With all the chemtrailing and spraying, chemicals in the cardboard, etc., is/are the very least of our worries.
I agree, moderation in all things.
Thank you for "breaking it down" for us!
Thank you !
I would also like to add that anything that is waterproof typically contains pfas which is also known as forever chemicals that do not break down in our environment and can very well be leached into your gardening soil very easily. STAY AWAY FROM ANYTHING NON STICK AND WATERPROOF PERIOD! Love this video! Thank you sharing and educating!
*Love the planet you inhabit ☺️🌍
True! Thanks for the comment!
Yes, ty...& I love your little rhyme!
Yep… good advice
Thank you SO MUCH for this info! Been waiting to start my mulch project til i could find it out on my own!
Good clarification. Didn’t realize the corners were an issue.
This is good! I use only brown cardboard, remove all tape and 90% of the labels, as well as any staples. I have been leaving the corner glue, but will re-think that. I'm mostly using cardboard for weed suppression. I'll have to watch more of your videos! Thanks.
I'm trying to get past my concern over chemicals which might be present in cardbord in my garden, you video made me feel a bit more at ease about it, thanks 🙂
Thanks! Won't consider using my shredded paper in my garden. Appreciate all you do!
Thanks, Jag. Very helpful! Very much enjoy your postings.
THANK YOU!!! I had given up trying to find information on this.
Wow, I didn't know that there was so muc so know and to look for when using cardboard for your garden! 😯
Thank you very much, this was extremely interesting! 😊👍
thank you so much for this video. I guess I need to start cutting off the section of the box where it is glues together. I just started using cardboard so this video was very helpful.
Thank you
Excellent info! Mahalo nui loa for sharing this valuable information!! Happy & Safe Holidays to you all!
Perfect timing! Thank you for providing details and visuals 👌
Thank you, Jag! I tried calling manufacturers of products to find out if their boxes were compostable. Now I know.... thanks to you and David the Good. 😀
😢 (The manufacturers didn't know!)
Thank you for sharing this info, man! God bless you!
Thank you, an excellent video, addressed my concerns exactly. 👍🏽
Thank you!
Thanks for this breakdown! Another concern I have heard is whether some kinds of cardboard contains PFOAs. Particularly, color printed cardboard.
Thanks
I am late to the party but wanted to know if I can shred cardboard and place it as bottom layer in my planters to save potting mix
Thanks 👍👍
I bought a 18 sheet paper shredder I shred brown cardboard and use it as mulch. So far it’s working great.
Great idea!!
Awesome! A lot of what people try to accomplish with cardboard is 'Sheet Mulching,' which can dramatically reduce the amount of moisture loss from the soil (water needed for irrigation). Shredded mulch also does this to some degree, but not nearly as well as carpet/sheet mulching. The problem is that it can look rather unsightly having sheets of cardboard laying all over the place, so folks then try to put soil on top of the cardboard or even regular mulch. If you want it to look nicer or if you're in an area that is fairly damp then it makes sense to shred the cardboard. If you are on the ranch, farm, or otherwise out of sight then leaving sheet of cardboard on the ground is not so bad. Quite often various projects come to pass that will create opportunities to put stuff on top of the cardboard over time.
@@demetriromanov9816 I tried sheet mulching cardboard, didn't work very well for me since it gets windy and blows the sheets.
Why not just mulch plastic in? Or motor oil?
@@terrykellyphotography6171 I bought 'garden staples' , I punch them through the cardboard and use them to hold it down in windy conditions. Rocks work as well. There is no 'stapler' needed for these staples, hands only.
Thanks for sharing your time with us ❤️ great information 💞
Cheers from 2 Canadians 🇨🇦 living in Mexico 🇲🇽🥰✌️
Thanks for watching!
Thanks Jag. Great video and I wish you well.
Good Information ! Thank you for sharing with us
Fabulous video! Have shared on several Facebook sites.
Good to know ❤thanks
Thank you so much!
Thank you so much for this knowledge. Amen
Very helpful. Thank you
Excellent information
Good day mate .
What about newspaper.
The best thing I have found is brown pizza boxes that I use on the path of my gardens to keep the weeds down. TP rolls go in the compost. Anything I question, I don’t use.
We are planning on renovating our front yard in summer of 2023. Instead of buying weed fabric, my wife and I are collecting cardboard boxes from our work. We are removing all tape and as much of the labels as we can. However, if it’s a pain to remove some of the labels we are leaving it on there. Since we are not using it on our garden beds that grow vegetables and it’s just to help kill the grass we are not being too picky. The plan is to cut the grass as far down as possible, cover it with 1-2 layers of cardboard boxes and then laying 3-4 inches of Woodchips from a local arborist on top of the cardboard. I feel that with landscaping the rules don’t have to be so strict. While there is still the risk of polluting the soil of my yard, I do feel that nature will take it’s course and work things through over the years. Thank you for the peace-of-mind video though, Jag! Colorado, USA
HI Jordan, Hose the cardboard down with water and remove the labels next day.
Good call! We will do that to get rid of of the sticky labels.
If you can't get the tape off after a few weeks it just peels off.
Great video. I also stsy away from cardboqrd that contained cloth textles from couches/ home decor to clothing. Depending upon where the ckoyh came from and traveled through, a lot of chemicals are not only allowed but required.
I have a bunch of packing paper that is about to go into use in my garden. It isn't as brown as brown paper bags, but is also a lot darker than bleached white paper.
Should be ok as long as it is not glossy or has lots of ink.
Great video. Thank you
Staples are steel, thus are primarily iron. Soil here where I live is acidic and will break down ferrous metals fast. I’ve seen metals listed on safety data sheets used in inks for labels, but you’ve got metals naturally occurring in the garden’s soil much of the time. I’d be more concerned with pesticides from neighboring properties. Then again, I’d only use cardboard for non-food landscaping.
I would be concerns about getting a staple in my hand while gardening since I normally put my hands in soil, that would be the primary concern.
@@DaisyCreekFarms
Got it. I often wear gloves because my hands are dry, cracked. Stains are like tattoos.
Sharp objects in the soil, small or large, put we gardeners at risk. One such risk is tetanus. The bacterium that causes tetanus is called Clostridium tetani. The bacterium can survive in a dormant state in soil and animal feces. It's essentially shut down until it discovers a place to thrive.Cuts or wounds exposed to soil or manure
A foreign body in a wound, such as a nail or splinter. If you're up to date on your tetanus shots (every 10 years) good. If not, be careful.
Thank you, very helpful!
Thank you so much for this information! I never thought about the glue
I saw in another video that cardboard can attract & make a perfect environment for termites to thrive in also. I now only compost boxes (good ways away from the house) and occasionally toss some in the cementer of my garden tower for the worms.
Thanks so much for making these videos & helping people learn gardening skills in such a clear and concise format! Looking forward to subscribing & watching more!
In my country these can be sold for recycling to the trash buyers
Thank you so much for this!
Toilet rolls, good for seed starters, fill with soil & seeds in a container to hold a little water.
Good to know, thank you.
Thanks!! 6 months in. I just noticed... Some cardboard is turning into an Anaerobic Barrier! while other cardboard is degrading as it should!!
Boxes that contained bicycles are not degrading in my garden, they followed the rules you outlined, but they turned into kind of...slightly oily feeling layer of compacted cardboard.
@@EvolutionWendy I've never had cardboard that did not decompose so am not sure about the bicycle boxes. But one of the things I do is completely wet down the cardboard, both top and bottom before covering with other materials, especially if I am using a double layer. Almost always the following year, often sooner, the cardboard is gone.
I wonder if this cardboard has pesticide treatment or has a waxed layer to prevent degradation.
I find that after a month or two, I can just reach down and pick up the tape and labels.
I am actually a cosplayer who is working with cardboard because, though it is harder to work with than typical EVA foam, I wanted to save money and be environmentally conscious while I'm at it. But it looks like I can't expect to take my taped, glued, varnished, acrylic-painted cardboard costumes and just bury them to rot when I'm done with them; Will I have to resign myself to just getting them burned+entombed in a proper landfill or is there a way I could de-toxify them to make them more compostable?
I'm even using some alternative construction methods of tabs, holes and fishing line to cut down on glue; but could that even be worth the extra effort?
Interesting, never had this question before lol, look into environmentally friendly glue made with starches and environmentally friendly paper tape instead of plastic. Fishing line is not good. I would say, use as much paper and natural tape and natural glue as possible.
Thank you for the insight.😎👍
Gr8 info
Thank you!!😇🙏👍
Thank You, u answered several of my questions👵🏻😻
Thank you! I've just started using cardboard in my flower beds and your video affirmed I'm doing it right!
Wonderful!
very helpful. thanks, jag!
Great video and great information
Fortunately my work gets shipments that have plain sheets of cardboard layered between cabinet parts which have no labels or glue seams at all.
Great information, thanks for sharing.
What are you thoughts on file folders, those slightly tannish color folders that your store legal papers in
Very helpful. Thank you!
this is so helpful! I had heard that newspaper uses all natural ink (like the colored grocery store ads) so I regularly use them in the garden...I also shred all my bills (white paper). I guess I need to rethink things. Thank you!!
Yes, the newspaper does use ink that is vegetable dye ink , however the white paper is bleached. I personally wouldn't use newspaper in the garden and send it back for recycling.
GOOD GRIEF!! I've been shredding up my white paper bills for the compost pile all this time. I guess us old birds CAN benefit from learning some new things. Thanks Jag.
I would add that the biggest problem with bleached paper is highly toxic dioxins. This was a major problem when chlorine gas was used to bleach paper pulp. In the modern world, chlorine gas is no longer used. This includes the US and EU. Today there are two methods in use, ECF - Elementary Chlorine Free (free from chlorine gas), and TCF - Totally Chlorine Free. ECF uses chlorine substances but does not cause these toxic dioxins that chlorine gas does. In most cases, therefore, you don't need to worry about composting white paper, as long as you know where the paper comes from. However, there are countries where chlorine gas is still used today.
great video, very descriptive. thank you!
Thank you for this information, I appreciate it!
Thanks...very helpful. What about cardboard egg cartons...are they ok to use?
Excellent.
Informative video by the way thank you.
Thank you so much for a very informative video!
I use plain brown cardboard slip sheets and they work wonderfully as weed barriers and break down nicely. No plastic, no ink, nor staples or tape. My garden produces heavily.
Cardboard boxes may contain insecticide, items shipped via containers are pretty much always doused with insecticide in order to prevent translocation of pest species, which is why containers are opened and vented well before anyone goes in to unload them.
Great info, thanks
Thanks, very helpful breakdown. We have a wood burner at home and I put the ash on my compost. Should I follow the same rules for cardboard/paper or will the fire get rid of the toxic chemicals?
Well-burnt ash no longer has any significant amounts of organic material left. Therefore small amounts of organic toxins can be rendered harmless in your burner. The ashes are the inorganic substances that cannot be burned and are therefore left over. Unfortunately, heavy metals belong to the inorganic substances and therefore become part of the ash.
Thank you. I have been using cardboard in my garden but never thought about these things.
Great video..what do you have to say about newspaper?..thank you
Although the ink on newspaper is vegetable dye, newspapers are bleached, so I would said do not use them in your garden.
This is so helpful
Great information
Great video! I'm assuming the brown paperish tape on Amazon boxes is okay??
What about grocery ads? They are colorful ink.
I live in the desert and I’m just looking for “brown” for my compost since I don’t have leaves to add
Sir thank you very much for imparting even minor details to lay men bye
Hi Jag that’s very good information to you and your family Happy holidays enjoy bye.
What about egg cartons that have the sticker on the carton lid?
NICE work!! Thank you. (When you say Glossy, it sounds a bit like CLOSSY, btw.)
Should I cover the cardboard with garden mesh before putting mulch?? Very concern to know. Thank you
Very helpful information. Thank you!
So, it's safe if you won't be eating from the plant (after you pick the right box)?
The one site I shared this to has had 28n likes and 14 shares today; it has been up about 6 hours. Thought you might like to know who popular this video is! Several hours later: 71 responses and 17n shares. You are a hit!
Wow! Thank you for sharing! this helps a lot! :)
@@DaisyCreekFarms It really getting likes and shares--probably over 100 likes by now!
Would it be OK to compost the car boxes that frozen dinner comes in?
What about white paper towels?
😀👍