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| I am slowly learning so many great gardening ideas from all you experts. So when I recently heard about solarizing(laying down clear plastic to kill weeds and seeds) I had a bunch of questions . Does it really work? Is it worth the effort? How long do you leave it on? What was your opinion of it? Thanks for any help you can give. |
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| Yes, yes, yes!! I can't say enough good things about this method. A few years ago, I decided to convert a couple sections of my Blvd. to garden. A total area about 30 x 6 feet. I hate grass and my Blvds. were not in the best of shape - some grass - lots of weeds etc. Early in the season, I simply covered the sections with black plastic, fastened it down with pieces of wire coat hangers bend in a U shape and let it cook all summer. By the time I removed the plastic the next spring, everything was dead and mostly decomposed. I didn't even have to remove the dead sod. I just tilled it up a bit and planted my seeds. What was truly wonderful about this method was: I had no weeds throughout the season other than the occasional tree seedling that would appear from seeds blowing in. The cooking method seemed to kill everything present in the soil and trust me, my Blvds. were infested with weeds especially crabgrass. I think I did this about 3 years ago and these gardens continue to be almost weed free. Kevin |
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- Posted by prairiemoon2 zone 6a/MA (My Page) on Wed, Jun 4, 14 at 16:29
| I've also solarized a large section of my yard that was about 25x25ft. I had just about given up fighting witch grass that had ruined my vegetable garden. We had leftover plastic from a backyard skating rink and we put one huge piece of clear 3ml thick plastic covering the whole area, weighed down with bricks for an entire year. That took care of about 95% of the witch grass and we reclaimed the area. The only thing that survived it was a small fringe of witch grass that was under the drip line of a tree, so I assume the stronger sun in the rest of the area made a big difference. |
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| Thank you so much. I am going to put it down right away. I remember years ago when I noticed my neighbors ground cover came under our fence and took root in our yard. I pulled it out but it just kept coming. After many attempts to eliminate it, I finally put dark plastic, weighted down with brick, over it and left it all summer till the next year. It was gone and never came back., |
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