Popular Gardening Technique Surprise

[ducks4you]

Ok, we ALL watch these gardening programs and/or read these articles to look for tips. Last summer I decided that I was tired of pulling weeds in this bed that I have referred to as my "Salad Garden Bed," a ~ 3 1/2 foot by 6 foot bed off my itself and "raised" with 2 x 6's surrounding it. I use plastic tablecloths to protect my wooden kitchen and dining room tables and cleaning them with a sponge wears off the surface. Lots of people throw that away, but I, becoming more and more Amish, reuse them in my gardening.
So, last August I thought I'd put this "TV Gardener Theory" to the test, and see if covering the bed for 6 weeks will solarize and really kill the weeds and make the soil generally fluffier. I had been struggling with too much clay in this bed for YEARS.
6 weeks became 7 months and, since the frogs starting singing that Spring has, indeed arrived, I pulled them back this morning to see if all of the weeds and all of the seeds had died, as the TV Gardener had promised.
Surprisingly, most of the weeds were dead, but a patch of grass survived and 2 common weeds AND...
an onion.
Surprisingly, I had a bunch of little, sprouted seeds!
Didn't know WHAT they were, so I pulled out my rake (to turn them into green compost) and all of the stall leavings I had put on this bed last August were fluffy and smelled like Great compost!
I'm about to go put my tined fork into it to see how far down my good soil now is. I'll bring out my camera and show you later on today what the result is.

 

[so lucky]

Lots of activity going on under that table cloth. When I had my garden "annex" covered, at one point I saw little varmints underneath it, running, lifting the plastic as they went. Weird.

 

[Nyboy]

I killed off grass by using cardboard, worked great, but neighbor complained about looks of cardboard on ground

 

[Beekissed]

NY, I'd be tempted to tell your neighbor a thing or so.

My sister used black plastic in her garden one year and it was all working out lovely for her, no weeds, good moisture control, etc. Then, one morning she was out working in the garden and as the sun started warming things up she started noticing the plastic moving. As it got warmer, it started moving more and more, in all areas of the garden(big garden). She was curious enough to peel back a corner of the plastic, only to find snakes of all kinds under there...too numerous to even count.

Seems like the snakes were really liking that heat absorbing plastic in her cool mountain mornings. She never used plastic again.

I can't imagine living there knowing there were that many snakes on the land.

 

[Nyboy]

I spotted 5 different snakes in my yard in 1 afternoon. Had them in the house !!! There are no mongoose breeders here. I called the Bronx zoo and asked

 

[Beekissed]

Did you try Craigslist?

I allow certain snakes~brown eastern, milk snake, garter snake~ to live around here, as their babies are food for my chickens and they also keep the copperheads away. Can't let the blacksnakes stick around, though I don't mind them being here ordinarily...but they target my chicks, so they have to go.

 

[catjac1975]

I spotted 5 different snakes in my yard in 1 afternoon. Had them in the house !!! There are no mongoose breeders here. I called the Bronx zoo and asked

There is product you can buy called snake away. Don't know if it works. I HATE SNAKES TOO!

 

[Nyboy]

Doesn't work I researched it, it is basically overpriced mothballs

 

[ducks4you]

I will post pictures that I took tomorrow--PROMISE!! Indeed, my tined fork went right in about 8-10 inches deep. The unmixed soil was easy to break up.
I planted late this afternoon:
21 hardneck garlic in the corners
red onion sets along the edges, in a zig zag pattern
block of spinach
block of lettuce
block of radishes
Covered the spinach, lettuce and radishes with some spoiled hay that had dried out to discourage birds from stealing my seeds.
No snakes...yet.
We had a garter snake living under our front door steps when we moved in. As soon as we moved in cats, the snake left.
Maybe...mice?

 

[chefsdreams]

i know this is a fairly old thread, but i love following along. oh, how you guys go on about snakes.