Clear or black plastic to kill grass & weeds? What thickness?

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Melissande Chillicothe, OH May 30, 2017

I want to kill off an entire yard of weeds and grass without chemicals. We experienced 4 years of poor health and now one of us (me) is in a much better position to reclaim the yard, which went to mostly weeds. My goal is to kill off everything except in areas I want to keep something, like a flower bed, and re-seed with a good grass seed after the kill-off is completed.

I've read articles where clear plastic is said to be best as it allows for a much hotter soil temperature. I've also read that black plastic works better as it keeps the light out so that the plants can't photosynthesize while they're being cooked under the plastic. One source said the color choice depended upon whether the weather was hot or cool in the summer.

We live in south central Ohio, so we're in a place where the summer is pretty warm at times.

One thing I won't be able to do, at least easily, is to lift up the plastic to water it. Will I need to do that? If so, it will affect how I lay out the plastic.

So, what type of plastic should I use and if you have a source with good prices, please share it!!!

The area to be killed off is a large part of a city lot, a triangular section about 75 feet long on the long side of the triangle, and 30 feet at the "base" of it, so lets say, keeping out the sections I want to avoid killing off, at least 2 100 foot rolls of plastic.

I probably won't be able to get the weeds cut to an inch or two of the ground. When this is all over, I plan to use a small tiller (a Mantis) to just roughen up the top 1/2 inch of soil, not deep enough to bring up seeds below the killed off zone (maybe not even that deep--just enough to roughen the soil to accept grass seed.

Since I store ladders and a jon boat along the fence, which is away from the house and across the area to be killed off, so I will have to be able to walk on the plastic, so it should be strong enough so that it can't be easily torn. I understand that if I tear it, I will have to patch it with duct tape to keep the heat from leaking out the torn area.

So, any advice here would be very much appreciated, including what mil thickness I need to order for this summer project, and maybe even advice on some slow growing grass to replace what's killed off when I'm ready to re-seed. Also need to know if I need to use straw on top of the newly seeded area when I re-seed?

Thanks!!!

Melissande

Post #10301217
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growin Beautiful, BC(Zone 8b) May 30, 2017

Just remember that if you cook the weeds under plastic, you will also be killing micro-organisms, worms, etc. Around here cardboard is used to kill off the grass and weeds in areas. Typically appliance stores can supply large pieces of cardboard. If you really do want to sterilize the soil of everything, wet the soil and place clear plastic overtop and it should cook everything below.

Post #10301223
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