Black Plastic
- You can reduce the use a layer of thin, black plastic to stop weeds germinating in your garden.
- Buy a big enough piece to cover the entire area you want to plant and leave a little extra around the edges.
- It will help raise the soil ’s temperature by 6°F (14°C) in the spring.
- You can leave it on your garden as mulch and nothing will grow through it or under it because neither sunlight nor air will get to the soil .
- Rainwater may pool on it which you may want to drain off once in awhile. If you save it and water your plants with it later it will do them a world of good.
- Push the plastic down into shallow trenches pushed in soil along the side of each row and the water will run to a spot where you can collect it.
- Heat-loving plants like tomatoes and watermelons will benefit from a layer of black plastic laid on the ground around their roots.
- Don’t use it over clay soil because it blocks air circulation and will cause the ground to compact.
mulch
soil conditioning
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