How many seeds/containers are you planning?

I'm really glad to have given you all some new ideas.. No, it is not too late to do this! I'm at a loss to explain why the article gives a time table.. seriously, you can put down plastic any time of year.. I just put some down two weekends ago, and I'm about to go out and make a plastic "circle" around a new oak I planted in the back yard. I will wintersow a bunch of seeds out there and see what happens. I haven't done that yet.. maybe this week.

Tomorrow, I will go outside and take pictures of what I'm doing already and where the plastic is now and show you the bed I will be creating.. About adding in organic matter.. I will be adding in organic matter after I soilarize. I get free leaf mold and use it as a soil amendment and I also use it as a mulch... so I will get lots of that and I will use it. It will just be after the plastic is removed.. everything organic breaks down, so it will break down.. If I were going to be ammending with something such as hay or unheated horse manure, I would probably want to soilarize it just to remove all the weed seeds it contains before starting my bed.. Just a thought :)

Susan

Thanks Susan, just a few more questions for you.

1. You remove the plastic when you winter sow the seeds, correct?
2. If I spread the hay/straw on the slope and then put the plastic on top would it still solorize the soil or would the hay/straw create a problem?
3. Can clear plastic be used? I have enough to cover the slope, but only in clear.

Thanks for the help!
Joanne

Yes, seeds would be put down after the area has been soilarized and nothing is left there. You'd take up the plastic and move to where you want a new bed area and start over. :)

Hmmm, see if you put down a thin layer of hay/straw I think it would work.. You see you have too make sure that the heat is traveling down past the hay and killing off what is beneath it.. But theoretically, regardless of how thick a layer you put down, given time, plus the heat, the entire area would be ready to plant.

Yes, I am using clear plastic

Susan

I tried the hot knife (see above for a link to a picture) and it worked just fine. I had thought it would be like slicing through butter, but it wasn't quite that quick -- but it was steady and easy, so I'm glad I bought it. I did discover that if I used the base of the knife to cut, rather than the tip, it was hotter and therefore cut faster. So I'm not sure it is any faster than other methods, but it does require a lot less energy.

happy-macomb: Thanks for the update. I might have to get one of those. It's a miracle I didn't lose any fingers with that box cutter last year. (I was so bad my husband couldn't watch!)

Karen

Happy, I already did all of my containers the hazardous way, with a box cutter ;) But that looks like a cool tool for next year and other things (like building your own copper trellises)....Hmmm, must figure out how to get DH to think it would be a great addition to HIS toolbox :D

~Sunny

Thanks Susan! I'm hoping I can solorize the hay/straw and the soil at the same time. I might keep it covered until spring just to be sure it did the job and spring sow annuals to cover it next year. Thanks again for the info!

Joanne

Joanne, I am in the process of doing a similar thing with an experiment I am doing. I have been wanting to try out Eco-Grass, a low maintenance grass. I am making a sculpture for my garden and wanted to install it in a place where my dh wouldn't have to mow around it. We covered an area of lawn with black plastic to kill the grass etc., About 2 weeks ago we planted the grass seed and a cover crop seed. Here is a photo with the new grass and the annual rye cover crop. The sculpture isn't complete, but we wanted to cement the pole in place before planting. There are several parts of it in process. If this works we will probably replace the whole lawn with it since most of our yard/garden is on hills. The yard will someday be perennials with Eco-grass paths if this works. I will post the photo later, I have to go out to take one, I thought I had one, but don't.

I have used a modified lasagna garden by layering newspaper and farmpost, but not directly winter sowing into it. I would end up with to much of a jumble if I did that. I did two new beds that way this year and the only weeds I have gotten are the ones that the seed came on top of the soil later on.

I went out and got a photo. The garden bed at the bottom left is one I did with the lazagna method, not that you can see much.

Cool sculpture Zen! So you used the black plastic rather than clear? How long did you let the plastic stay on the section? I revisited the area that I want to do this to and we're figuring DH can mow all the odd grass (looks like bamboo grass but can't find out what it is exactly) which leaves a nice mulch cover, and then lay the plastic over that mulch cover. I'm just afraid if light can actually get to it, that the weeds will continue to flourish - as it is now, when I weed into a big bin, the darn things live on practically AIR for like a month!

~Sunny

I used the black because I just trusted it more. DH moved the old grass vary short before we covered it. It was one there for 6 weeks I probably would have left it on longer if we had the time to. The way it was we really needed to get the grass seed in so it could get a good start before the frost set in. (We are being threatened with snow flurries later this week, I want out of Minnesota.)

When we pulled the plastic off everything looked very dead and the grass just broke away from it roots, the roots themselves were looking very dead.

The sculpture is about 3' now, the plan is to get it to 6 or 7' and then put in two more at different heights.

That Eco Grass looks really interesting. Our "lawn" is really just patches of weeds. Our well runs dry if we water the lawn and gardens too often so the "needs little watering" sounds great. Please keep us updated on how well it does and whether it is rough on the feet. Thanks!

Joanne

I will. When I was looking for the Eco Grass I found various sites that had it for zone 4, sorry I didn't check out PA. I got it from a Prairie Moon Nursery here in MN. What I like about it is it is a mixture of grasses, it should not be fertilized, if you want you can mow it once or twice a year and it doesn't need watering. I suppose if we were having a drought and I wanted to we could water it.

I will keep you up to date. We probably won't be able to make any real judgements for a year, but I can report progress.

Pauline