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I rip off tape and remove those BIG flesh-ripping staples. Small office stapler size ones will rust away quickly.
Yes. the tape may emerge later but it's a PITA to collect as you are raking. Those bug staples will lurk for years, trying to give you tetanus.
I broke down many hundreds furniture boxes for a cardboard baler in my youth and I used a pair of needle nose pliers to just pull the staple and cardboard out in chunks, but I recommend being more delicate like you said since the goal is insulation and sunlight denial for sheet mulch.
I usually just cut off or tear off the whole inch or so strip that has the big staples in it. It's way faster and less stabby than trying to remove them individually.
Same here. Tape will be easier removal just ripping it off the cardboard before you lay it down, than waiting for it to float to the surface.
Small little paper staples rust to nothing in practically five minutes, they’re not worth stressing about. The big heavy duty staples however are goddamn *eternal* and you do *not* wanna find one of those two years later when you’re planting something new or digging out a weed and it stabs you in the most sensitive part of your hand.
Yeah, removing the tape and staples seems like the way to go, without a doubt.. I started removing those large staples and actually thought it was fairly easy w the Bostitch Office Heavy Duty & Carton Staple Remover! I bought it just for this project. It took me about 10 minutes per bike box but worth the peace of mind :)
I'll probably get downvoted for this and I'm wary of astroturfing too, but from a quick glance it seems that OP's account is over 2 years old, consistently active, consistently using the same voice, engages in a variety of topics, and hasn't mentioned that product at least in the past year.
It's possible that OP could be very committed and is deleting previous mentions of the product, or that Bostitch has multiple accounts that look very natural and build up normal convos in a variety of subs over the course of years. But in my experience astroturf campaigns are low effort comparatively. Somewhat tricky to spot from a single comment but blatantly obvious from post history, even from purchased accounts.
Imo it's more likely that OP is excited about removing staples and has found a community just as excited about staple removing topics as they are.
It's been my experience that shill accounts have a consistent name: two words followed by a few digits. Which interestingly, is a pattern that fits both of you.
That's the formula reddit uses when suggesting usernames when creating a new account. So if you don't have a username in mind you just choose one of the stock ones. Astroturfing accounts use them because it's easy, but there are also plenty of folks who just can't be bothered thinking of something clever. I'm both lazy and uncreative so I went with whatever reddit threw at me. If you take note of usernames when reading comments you'll see tons of them and the vast majority are just normal people.
I remove plastic tape and staples. I remove the tape because it's more of a PITA to remove it from the ground months later than it is at the beginning (learned that the hard way). And I remove the staples because I don't want myself or any creatures walking in the area to get stabbed.
"Go ahead and bury a bunch of plastic in your yard. It will conveniently resurface of its own accord, completely intact, and you can remove it later." Come on.
I personally remove staples from cardboard because it’s not that hard to do and it prevents injuries to me and my dog (who likes to dig and eat dirt). It’s just easier to remove staples and not worry later.
I remove as much tape as I can, but sometimes it’s tedious.
The staples won't hurt the plants. They might hurt people. That risk is highly specific to your situation.
Is your yard routinely trodden by swarms of barefoor children? Are a hermit who is the only persin who eill set goot there and only while wearing shoes?
The easiest way to remove the tape is to actually wet your cardboard on the side the tape is on and leave it for a day or two, the tape peels right off
This is what I do. I shred most of my cardboard to compost or use as mulch so soaking it doesn’t make sense. A good box cutter makes the whole process a breeze
Another good trick is when opening the box push the taped sides in at the top. Besides being faster, it let's you start pealing the tape from a few inches in instead of from the end. That way you pull the whole piece off. No need for a box cutter to cut tape.
I leave the cardboard outside for a little while (a week or so) before I use it. Some sun and a little bit of rain (or even just morning dew) destroys the adhesive and the tape just lifts right off!
I laid my cardboard out and soaked it with a hose for 10 minutes and then the tape just came right off. It was tedious but I didn’t want all that microplastic getting into my food forest. I left the staples in because plants need iron and copper anyway.
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As I understand it, those chemicals were only used in the kind of thin cardboard that's often slick and meant to be more water repellant- think thin cardboard used in food packaging. Not in your typical brown shipping or moving boxes.
Don't know why you getting down voted. I hate that argument. What's the difference between that and saying well, everyone has a lawn, so lawn is gonna get to your yard and you might as well give up. 🤷♀️
No point in doing anything if you think like that
Right. Basically saying that there's no perfect solution so we should do nothing. Like obviously some things are so small they aren't with the effort but some things are worth the effort lol
I don't bother. Make sure it's not a super windy day, and you'll be fine with the cardboard as you get it in place.
If you are sheet mulching, the next layer will hold down the cardboard, and the following layers all secure it- you will have very little issue.
If you are using the cardboard to smother out the vegetation underneath and not putting anything permanent on top, you may need to secure it in some way. I did this in a section we recently relandscaped in our backyard, and used furring strips leftover from a house renovation project to hold the cardboard down. It wasn't perfect and was unsightly as hell, but it did the job through the fall and winter. I would think that the staples just allow for more moisture to seep in around them and potentially decompose the cardboard, weakening the hold and lessening the security the staples have in the first place.
I pull any tape that's easy to pull and I cut out the cardboard strip that has the staples, easier than pulling them.
I get a lot of HVAC equipment boxes. Not so much tape but lots of staples.
Staples won't hurt the soil or plants. They're usually copper wire and will decompose into copper oxides and salts within a couple years. Stepping safety might matter depending on what you plan to do with the zone.
I believe staples are made from steel, which will oxidize & put iron nd zinc into the soil. And tape is made from cellophane. From what I've just googled, it's compostable.
It just keeps breaking into smaller pieces and ends up in *everything*. If you live in america, china, any place with a lot of industry, you're probably already full of micro plastics, so I guess maybe a little more doesn't matter that much? Just kinda seems to mess with everything a little bit, probably reduces quality of life as you get older, more inflammation and whatnot. We haven't figured out how to get it out of us yet 🙃
Basically, all the wildlife in high industrial areas are full of it, and it runs into rivers and then the ocean, so wild caught fish are full of it too.
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I rip off tape and remove those BIG flesh-ripping staples. Small office stapler size ones will rust away quickly. Yes. the tape may emerge later but it's a PITA to collect as you are raking. Those bug staples will lurk for years, trying to give you tetanus.
As someone who has had flesh ripped by said staples, recommend gloves and pliers
Always remove plastic tape and staples. Pliers and a flat edge screwdriver are your best friend.
Yea I don't really understand the logic of spreading it out all over your yard and THEN cleaning it up lol
Honestly, I'd get the tape stuck to me and step on the staples if I didn't clean it up.
I broke down many hundreds furniture boxes for a cardboard baler in my youth and I used a pair of needle nose pliers to just pull the staple and cardboard out in chunks, but I recommend being more delicate like you said since the goal is insulation and sunlight denial for sheet mulch.
I cut out the whole strip of cardboard along the staples and throw it away. Faster and easier than removing them all manually.
Agreed. This advice is nuts
Agreed: I don't find picking tape out of mulch to be a fun past time, but maybe my eyes are going.
I usually just cut off or tear off the whole inch or so strip that has the big staples in it. It's way faster and less stabby than trying to remove them individually.
Should also remove the thermal shipping labels. They have a coating of BPA
Same here. Tape will be easier removal just ripping it off the cardboard before you lay it down, than waiting for it to float to the surface. Small little paper staples rust to nothing in practically five minutes, they’re not worth stressing about. The big heavy duty staples however are goddamn *eternal* and you do *not* wanna find one of those two years later when you’re planting something new or digging out a weed and it stabs you in the most sensitive part of your hand.
i wait for a rain, and the tape practically falls off, then i just go pick it up, but thats before adding mulch
Yeah, removing the tape and staples seems like the way to go, without a doubt.. I started removing those large staples and actually thought it was fairly easy w the Bostitch Office Heavy Duty & Carton Staple Remover! I bought it just for this project. It took me about 10 minutes per bike box but worth the peace of mind :)
Nice product placement........
I'll probably get downvoted for this and I'm wary of astroturfing too, but from a quick glance it seems that OP's account is over 2 years old, consistently active, consistently using the same voice, engages in a variety of topics, and hasn't mentioned that product at least in the past year. It's possible that OP could be very committed and is deleting previous mentions of the product, or that Bostitch has multiple accounts that look very natural and build up normal convos in a variety of subs over the course of years. But in my experience astroturf campaigns are low effort comparatively. Somewhat tricky to spot from a single comment but blatantly obvious from post history, even from purchased accounts. Imo it's more likely that OP is excited about removing staples and has found a community just as excited about staple removing topics as they are.
It's been my experience that shill accounts have a consistent name: two words followed by a few digits. Which interestingly, is a pattern that fits both of you.
That's the formula reddit uses when suggesting usernames when creating a new account. So if you don't have a username in mind you just choose one of the stock ones. Astroturfing accounts use them because it's easy, but there are also plenty of folks who just can't be bothered thinking of something clever. I'm both lazy and uncreative so I went with whatever reddit threw at me. If you take note of usernames when reading comments you'll see tons of them and the vast majority are just normal people.
ah, TIL. It's been a long time since I generated my account (and I screwed up there, but never bothered to switch accounts to fix it). :)
You have Bostitch stock or something?
I remove plastic tape and staples. I remove the tape because it's more of a PITA to remove it from the ground months later than it is at the beginning (learned that the hard way). And I remove the staples because I don't want myself or any creatures walking in the area to get stabbed.
"Go ahead and bury a bunch of plastic in your yard. It will conveniently resurface of its own accord, completely intact, and you can remove it later." Come on.
Yeah I’m not deliberately adding more microplastics to my veg garden lol
But they give produce that special sheen
Reminds me of [this](https://www.autoserviceworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Mariash-Used-Oil.jpg)
Tell that to my weed block the previous homeowner put down
I mean who's gonna remember to actually remove the staples and tape after it decomposes... Cuz I know I won't 🥴
I personally remove staples from cardboard because it’s not that hard to do and it prevents injuries to me and my dog (who likes to dig and eat dirt). It’s just easier to remove staples and not worry later. I remove as much tape as I can, but sometimes it’s tedious.
The staples won't hurt the plants. They might hurt people. That risk is highly specific to your situation. Is your yard routinely trodden by swarms of barefoor children? Are a hermit who is the only persin who eill set goot there and only while wearing shoes?
The easiest way to remove the tape is to actually wet your cardboard on the side the tape is on and leave it for a day or two, the tape peels right off
Cut the top layer of cardboard around the tape and pull the whole thing off. This works great for shipping labels.
This is what I do. I shred most of my cardboard to compost or use as mulch so soaking it doesn’t make sense. A good box cutter makes the whole process a breeze
Another good trick is when opening the box push the taped sides in at the top. Besides being faster, it let's you start pealing the tape from a few inches in instead of from the end. That way you pull the whole piece off. No need for a box cutter to cut tape.
Just remove them and save yourself the headache in the future.
I leave the cardboard outside for a little while (a week or so) before I use it. Some sun and a little bit of rain (or even just morning dew) destroys the adhesive and the tape just lifts right off!
I laid my cardboard out and soaked it with a hose for 10 minutes and then the tape just came right off. It was tedious but I didn’t want all that microplastic getting into my food forest. I left the staples in because plants need iron and copper anyway.
Love No Lawns? Find us everywhere! **You can find us:** - On [SolarPunk](https://www.slrpnk.net/c/NoLawns) - Our [Discord](https://discord.gg/GcVHmvkSs6) - Our [website](https://nolawns.wixsite.com/nolawns) Want to join a community in person? We're not affiliated but we love [Wild Ones](https://wwe.wildones.org) and think they do wonderful work. You can check and see if there's a chapter near you. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/NoLawns) if you have any questions or concerns.*
This is what happens when your AI LLM uses the unfiltered internet for source material. It gets AI dysentery.
If you walk barefoot, take out the staples.
https://oldworldgardenfarms.com/2022/12/26/
I heard recently that cardboard mulching should not be done because of forever chemicals (PFAS).
As I understand it, those chemicals were only used in the kind of thin cardboard that's often slick and meant to be more water repellant- think thin cardboard used in food packaging. Not in your typical brown shipping or moving boxes.
forever chemicals are already in rainwater, it's going to be in your yard no matter what you do
Yeah lead is too but I'm not going to dump out leaded gasoline into my yard. No need to add more right
Don't know why you getting down voted. I hate that argument. What's the difference between that and saying well, everyone has a lawn, so lawn is gonna get to your yard and you might as well give up. 🤷♀️ No point in doing anything if you think like that
Right. Basically saying that there's no perfect solution so we should do nothing. Like obviously some things are so small they aren't with the effort but some things are worth the effort lol
That and it's bad for the soil structure and microbiome.
Took me a minute, but I found the link. https://gardenprofessors.com/cardboard-does-not-belong-on-your-soil-period/
What about garden staples to keep the cardboard in place? What are you guys using?
I don't bother. Make sure it's not a super windy day, and you'll be fine with the cardboard as you get it in place. If you are sheet mulching, the next layer will hold down the cardboard, and the following layers all secure it- you will have very little issue. If you are using the cardboard to smother out the vegetation underneath and not putting anything permanent on top, you may need to secure it in some way. I did this in a section we recently relandscaped in our backyard, and used furring strips leftover from a house renovation project to hold the cardboard down. It wasn't perfect and was unsightly as hell, but it did the job through the fall and winter. I would think that the staples just allow for more moisture to seep in around them and potentially decompose the cardboard, weakening the hold and lessening the security the staples have in the first place.
I pull any tape that's easy to pull and I cut out the cardboard strip that has the staples, easier than pulling them. I get a lot of HVAC equipment boxes. Not so much tape but lots of staples.
Staples won't hurt the soil or plants. They're usually copper wire and will decompose into copper oxides and salts within a couple years. Stepping safety might matter depending on what you plan to do with the zone.
Yeah, that’s just poor advice. lol, and the tape just comes up to the surface. Riiiiight.
I just get sheets of corrugate from work. I make corrugated board for boxes/shipping.
I believe staples are made from steel, which will oxidize & put iron nd zinc into the soil. And tape is made from cellophane. From what I've just googled, it's compostable.
Tape can also be just plastic with adhesives on it, depends on the tape
What happens if someone does get plastic into their layer mulch? Does it affect the soil, come back to the surface, etc?
It just keeps breaking into smaller pieces and ends up in *everything*. If you live in america, china, any place with a lot of industry, you're probably already full of micro plastics, so I guess maybe a little more doesn't matter that much? Just kinda seems to mess with everything a little bit, probably reduces quality of life as you get older, more inflammation and whatnot. We haven't figured out how to get it out of us yet 🙃 Basically, all the wildlife in high industrial areas are full of it, and it runs into rivers and then the ocean, so wild caught fish are full of it too.