Ah, springtime at last. Many home garderners are busy preparing their gardens and planting for a beautifully landscaped yard. Start now to control the weeds showing their ugly heads in your garden. Mulch provides the weed barrier you need now for bountiful flowers, shrubs and vegetables.

Mulch will not only control weeds, but retain moisture in the soil and keep extreme temperatures from damaging root systems. There are many different types and ways to apply mulch. Some of them can be very costly. I've found a better way to control weeds naturally and inexpensively.

If you're putting in new plants, be sure to follow planting procedures like proper depth and spacing as well as watering the holes where your plants will go. For established garden areas, make sure to hoe or pull weeds more than two inches tall. Also be sure you have applied any compost and tilled it into the soil well. Level the ground and break up any large clods of soil.

Then it's time for the mulch. Commercial mulches can be costly. An inexpensive alternative is to recycle newspapers under a shallow layer of shredded bark. The newspapers are of course free, and you can feel good about recycling them. Shredded bark can be purchased in quantity from a sawmill for a very reasonable price.

First, wet the ground to be covered. Don't make a mud puddle, but be sure to soak it well. Then lay out the newspapers. You can use 1-2 sheets, overlapping them to keep them in place. Put rocks or some other heavy object down to hold them down temporarily. Once you have an area covered, wet it again to soak the newspapers. This will keep the paper from blowing away and you can pick up and move the rocks or weights to the next area. Repeat this procedure until the entire area is covered.

If you have existing plants, you can tear and fit the newspapers around them. Make sure they snug right up against the base of the plants to keep the weeds out.

Then apply the bark mulch. Since you've already put down a weed barrier (newspapers), you won't need nearly as much bark mulch as is usually called for. You need only apply enough to hide the newspapers. Commercial applications calling for mulch at a 2 inch depth will require one 2 cubic feet bag to cover 12 square feet. You will only need half that much if you've put down newspapers first.

Which kind and size of mulch to use will depend on your budget. If you're shopping commercially, you can purchase plain medium sized bark at about half the price of mulch treated with insect deterrant. Sawmills produce bark as a by product and will cost even less.

Make sure the mulch is evenly spread. By adding mulch as needed once a year, you'll have a head start on the garden weeds.

The newspapers will work as a weed barrier and are free compared to expensive weed cloth. They will also retain moisture in the soil and degrade naturally to improve the condition of the soil in your garden. The mulch will cover the newspapers giving your garden or flower beds an attractive look. They too will degrade into soil-enhancing nutrients. Mulching will also help protect roots from extreme temperatures, keeping the root system warm during cooler spring nights and cooler during the hot summer days.