Fending Off the Weeds With Newsprint

First the grass is mowed, then the newspaper pages are placed there (four seems about right). The pages are wetted, so the roots can burst through. Compost tops it off.

“Just make a hole in the newspaper big enough to plug in the plant,” he said. “But don’t excavate a wide hole, because you would be exposing more underlying soil where there are going to be weeds.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/09/garden/09garden.html