Black Plastic to cover garden

[ErieDeare]

I am looking for black plastic to cover my 15' X 15' garden, I would like to have a 20' X 20' piece of black plastic. Does anyone know where one can buy some?

Has anyone put down black plastic to warm up the soil?
Does it warm up the soil to get a early start on planting your garden or is there another reason behind this?

I have put down on my garden last Fall 6 inches of 3 to 4 inches of wood mulch, than 6 inches of leaf compost and than 2 inches of well aged (4 year old) horse manure, than I put mulch grass and leaves on to of that.

I will be getting a soil test sometime this month if I can get into the ground. It has been - 20 here in Northwest Ohio this Winter. So the ground should be froze deep.

Also I see people take clay tile and stand them up right but have no ideal why can someone explain what they are doing?

Please gave your comments on what I have said and any advise on what to do.

[Doug9345]

Black plastic is typically used for weed suppression. Clear plastic warms faster but allows weeds to grow under it. I've used black plastic to kill the grass of on a section of lawn I wanted to plant. You can buy it at the big box hardware stores, nurseries likely and on line at places like www.greenhousemegastore.com/

There are several things I can think of that they are using the clay tiles for. Maybe they are using them as ollas, or just as a way to get water deeper into the soil. If they are on the plastic maybe that is what they had for weights and maybe who ever did it thought it was decoration.

[ErieDeare]

I would think that black plastic would heat the soil faster than clear plastic?
Yes I could see that black plastic would bake the weeds or what ever that might try to grow.

The clay tile was standing up on the ground not on plastic. An in a row.

[Doug9345]

Think in terms of tinted windows keeping the interior of a car cooler. As far as the clay tile I'll go with someones attempt at art.

[bughunter99]

Kudos to you on the fall amendments! Now the thing is that with all of that wood in there, your area might be a bit nitrogen deficient for a while. You might want to consider adding a bit of blood meal to your planting holes when you are ready.

A thick layer of mulch that is not broken down can actually slow down the heating of the soil, it acts like a blanket. Sometimes I push the rough stuff aside in the spring to speed things up. We've had a lot of snow though so maybe your stuff is mashed down and degraded nicely. Dig around a bit when able to see how far down the soil is.

Any kind of plastic works for heating up the ground. Clear plastic actually works a little faster than black because light gets though, but the problem with clear plastic is that it gives the weed seeds a head start. Black plastic takes a little longer than clear but it keeps the weeds down. You can get big sheets of either in the paint section of the local box stores.

Another route is to skip the plastic and go with black landscaping fabric. This is my preferred route because water penetrates it and I can leave it in place all summer, just pushing my mulch over the top of it if the weather gets too warm. This set up conserves water too. Plus I hated having to figure out what to do with that giant sheet of plastic when I was done with it each spring. I felt bad tossing it. It does not heat up as quick as plastic though.


Stacy

PS: I think we are sending another ginormous snow storm your way this weekend so might want to wait a few days.

[madddawg]

I always cover a section of my garden with a big sheet if clear plastic, not only to help warm the soil,greenhouse effect, but also to keep it dry. April and may can be pretty wet here. Last year we had so much rain, most people didn't get into their garden until late May. I was in mine by late April. Some farmers didn't get their crops in till June. When they try for the end of April.