Plastic mulch

In my past posts, you've seen me describe our use of black plastic on our gardens.  We continue to experiment with it.

Last year we used black plastic on our strawberry bed to try and deal with the main challenge with strawberries--keeping them weeded and keeping the runners from choking them out.  The plastic also helps increase the heat in the spring, so we've found the crop matures more quickly on plastic.

One trouble we has last year, though, was keeping the strawberries watered with the drought.  Because the plants tended to be higher than other parts of the plastic, and we try to cut only a hold big enough to get the plant stuck in the dirt, it was hard to focus our watering on the plants without the water running away from the plant to low spots on the plastic.

Accordingly, this year we've decided to try something a little different.  Before putting the plastic down, we tried to create shallow furrows the length of each row and then plant the plants right a long side the furrows.  We don't want the plants in the bottom of the furrow, lest they drown, but yet close enough so that they can soak up the moisture that settles to the furrow and drains through the holes we poke in the plastic with a fork.  We'll see if this becomes a problem if we have a very wet year.

To do this, I first go around the bed with my rotary plow to create a ditch and kick the dirt to the outside.  It works best if you mow the grass (if you have grass walkways, like us) nice and short, as it will make it easier raking the dirt back on to the plastic.  I then tilled the soil, then went back and forth with my rotary plow to create gradual furrows the length of the patch.  We then went with the rake to level things out a little.  You want a light furrow, but nothing too deep. 

We then laid the plastic out, setting it down first into one of the trenches on the outside of the bed, raked soil over the edge to fill in the trench, and then pulled the plastic sort of tight across the bed.  We then worked from the side that we had buried the first side of plastic and gradually put a small amount of sand in the trench, working across the patch.  This keeps the plastic tight as you work across.  Once done, you trim the edge of the plastic to fit and rake the soil back over all edges of the soil. 

Once done, you need to take a pitch fork or some other device and poke quite a few small holes around the plastic to allow moisture to soak in.  Finally, we cut small "x"s in the plastic parallel to each of the shallow furrows, transplanted the strawberries, and watered.

Using rotary plow to make a trench around the outside of the patch, throwing the soil to the outside.  If you don't have a rotary plow, you can use either a spade, or till deeply and use a hoe or shovel to pull out the soil.

The furrow completed around the outside of the patch.

I'm now tilling the inside of the bed

Using the rotary plow to create the furrows in the tilled soil.  Note: you can do this with a hoe as well--it will just take longer.  Also, I made the mistake of running in both directions, which created every other hill bigger than the others.  Next time, I'll run the rotary plow in one direction, and then turn around and start again from the other end.  To mark my rows, I used a spacer and stuck in stakes for me to follow.  My son walked ahead and pulled out the stakes for me.

Finished bed with the furrows.  I then leveled them slightly with a rake so the furrows were not so deep.

I'm sorry I didn't take pictures of installing the plastic.  We did it quickly one night and all hands were needed.  You san see the sand laid down each furrow and then I use a fork to poke holes in the plastic.  Water can soak in, but generally the weeds can't grow out through the holes.  The few that do you just have to pull out.

Finished bed after planting.  On the opposite end of the bed I'll probably put tomatoes or additional strawberries.  There are over 250 plants in this bed.

This is our nursery bed, where I let the plants send out runners.  I'll probably let them fill out again this year with runners and transplant or sell more next year.  But, you have to stay ahead of the weeds!