Can I use shredded brown paper grocery bags as mulch in the vegetable gardens? Don't want to use grass clippings because of a weed problem. Finely shredded or chunky?

foxglove, I don't know how big your garden is, but I have a small one, and I lay down three sheets of paper, flat, (as if the birds were going to read it!) and place nice rocks that I've pulled out of my lawn over time on top, so yo don't see it at all. It's so effective that the only weeding I do is in the little spots that are uncovered for the actual plants. It's time consuming to do the rocks, but once you've got them, it's gratifying to lay them down. They look so pretty. so if your garden is bigger, there's no reason you couldn't shred the bags

Hi, I have 3 8x4 raised beds for veggies, and three small perennial beds. I've laid soaker hoses down in all gardens, and wanted to mulch over them (as suggested by John/Ecologicals sometime back). From what I've read, the woodchip & bark mulches that are available are not the ideal cover up for the veg garden. I was hoping that the shredded bags could help....I think the fine spray of mist from the soaker hoses will keep the paper down and it's inside a fence so it wouldn't blow too far.... What do you think? Will the paper decompose too quickly and form a solid mat?

My father-in-law gets rolls of that brown paper, I think it's used at construction sites and new houses to keep carpet from getting dirty. He covers his garden and plants through it. I don't know if it has any chemicals in it, though, he's not organic so he might not have looked into that.