Gardening Tips: Borders

If you want to add ground cover such as creeping thyme or alyssum to your garden here is a great way to get started early and a fabulous way to create instant borders without the backache of having to plant each flower. Measure the area you want covered with ground cover. Let’s say you want to create a border along an existing garden that is 10 feet long. Cut newspaper (about 2 pages thick) into two feet long by one foot wide strips. To cover 10 feet you will need five of these two foot strips. Place the strips in a slightly sunny area but where the seeds won’t be disturbed or pelted with rays of light, such as basement shelving near a window. Place garbage bags on the shelves then add the newspaper strips. Do not overlap strips.
Sprinkle the seeds on the newspaper like you would if you were planting them in the ground. Place a layer of paper towel over each strip and then spray the towel, seeds and newspaper with a water bottle. You want to saturate the towel and the newspaper, but you don’t want it to drip. The paper must never dry out (if it does spray immediately.) Remove the paper towel when the seeds germinate (in about a week.) Two months later, weather permitting, you can plant your newspaper strips, now bursting with seedlings, outdoors. First carefully arrange each seedling strip where it will be planted. Once you are happy with the arrangement cover bare newspaper areas with soil to anchor the strip.