Mary, first heard of solarization on the Southern Peony Blog
http://www.southernpeony.com/2... She showed pics of a bed that had been in place for 2 years, had solarized before adding good soil and planted directly in it. Basically it's putting thin, clear plastic sheeting over an area that's going to be a new garden bed and leaving it there for 4-6 weeks. Can be over grass as long as it's short or bare earth. Has to be done during summer so the plastic can cause the soil to heat up extensively, kills weed seed, bacteria and pests as well as making nutrients more readily available in the existing soil. I read Adriana's articles a few years ago the googled it--always planned to try it when I had the chance--got that this year! Jeff didn't take a pic including the 4th bed because it was probably blocked by my big bottom madly tacking down plastic sheeting! He's so thoughtful sometimes, probably because he posted the pic on Facebook to show his friends what a good guy he was to help me out and didn't want to scare them.....
Here's a pic from my balcony, you can see the furthest bed is covered by plastic (just the super thin, .4m painting dropsheets). For size reference the sheets are 10' wide, I folded them in half, and I used 5 10' long pieces for the first bed.
Karen, this is the first time my husband has assisted in any of my beds; I think he's happy that I'm expanding to the back of the property instead of using up space he's like to use! He has grand plans of doing a post and beam structure with a big, outdoor fireplace one of these years, my beds keep getting closer and closer to the area he had earmarked.....And as for the waste in the fall, we have a great trash service. I bag them up and put them out for disposal since they're not supposed to go back into compost. The trash guys will pick up anything as long as it's bagged or in a big box or easy to lift/throw in the compactor.
Alex, thanks! I've put beds in before, just putting down cardboard then planter's mix by the ton on top--pretty much the only course open for planting in the front of our house since it's hard clay. The soil in the back is much better than that, it's a sandy black dirt, doesn't clump much. I'll be adding quite a bit of compost and probably some topsoil to the new beds as well. My husband thinks we should edge all of them with the preformed retaining wall type bricks, that'll look nicer than what I use out front but I'm not looking forward to getting them back there.....
Tracey, my beds are NOTHING compared to the ones we saw on the garden tours in WI! I'm still so far behind in my weeding....I have a full week off after this Sunday though and hope to catch up some. Plus the peonies just don't grow as big here as they do there, or at least not nearly as quickly.
