Newspaper instead of Weed Mat

I was wondering if you could use newspaper as a alternative to weed mat?

Many here have successfully newspaper and cardboard layered at the bottom of their boxes.

I used cardboard under my beds and 5 - 6 layers of newspaper under my mulch in the pathways. Worked great. It depends on what is growing on the ground you are covering. If bermuda grass use weed mat, If fescue grass then the newspaper or cardboard work good for me. Also depth of bed. Mine are 10" so I do not know how a 6" deep bed would work.

We layer three sheets of newspaper on the bottom and then a half-inch or so of moistened leaves. This provides adequate weed control until the plants are well-developed, and then it composts and allows the worms to come up through the ground into our garden.

I don't know what we will do when the paper is not there--you cannot compost your online newspaper. And, our paper is more full of manure than most, so it is really great for the garden.

Yes, we have some weeds, but never all that labor-intensive. About 5 minutes every Saturday morning will take care of more than 200 SF. In the event we get a dandelion weed, we keep that as long as it does not disturb what was planted. IMO, dandelion is a superfood packed full of nutrition, very high in vitamins A, C, and K and also containing E and some of the B. In our mix, it is super-enriched with minerals as well, especially Calcium, Magnesium, Manganese, Potassium, and Copper (all of which absorb much more efficiently than in supplement form).