I call this the 'No Work' method but there is a bit of work involved but I have successfully grown veggies without turning the soil, doing a minimum of weeding and very little work except planting and harvesting.

Back in the early 60's while traveling down a secondary highway I stopped at a veggie stand where an old fella displayed some of the nicest cantaloupe I'd ever seen and most were close to the size of soccer balls. When I asked him his secret he said, "black plastic, they love it". Having been a regular type gardener and worked on some farms I paid little attention until about 8 years ago when I started using this method.

Black Plastic Mulch has been used for many years to increase production and decrease labour with a variety of farm crops. Where there is drought and little rainfall it is a blessing indeed and the labour savings outweigh the cost of the plastic by far.

I experimented with tilling the soil, just loosening the soil, and doing nothing to the soil and found there was not a lot of difference in food production as long as the soil was fertile and covered with black plastic mulch and compost was placed in the 'starting holes'.. In trials done alongside one another with regular gardening and plastic mulch gardening, the plot with the plastic mulch often produced two to three times the amount of produce and that's with no weeding, watering, or digging. The sod under the soil would compost and become food for the worms and countless millions of soil bacteria and microscopic insects. This in turn became food for the plants and in a years time the soil could be picked up by the hand-full just by thrusting your hand into it.

The questions I'm asked most often are along this line.

• "How does the rain and air get it in" ?
• "Don't you have a lot of problems with slugs and insects?
• "Isn't the plastic too hot for a lot of plants?"
• "How long does the plastic last?"
• "Is it expensive"?
• Doesn't the soil stagnate and smell under the plastic"?

That's why I'm writing this, because for years many people have been fascinated by this method when they see it working. I have had Tomato plants 4 feet in diameter and covered with tomatoes when the neighbors were scrawny with a few tomatoes during a drought one summer.

This is very convincing when seen as proof of the method. When I tell them I do no weeding, watering or digging they want to know more! So I'm writing this to share a method that makes gardening a lot of fun instead of a lot of drudgery and after the first year, the plastic is down and all you do is Plant and Harvest. No chemicals to buy, and by the way the plastic is cheap, costing around 50 dollars Canadian for 2000 sq. ft of 6 mil.-- which is two and a half cents a sq. ft., a very low price to produce food with little work. If you don't want a garden this size nor have the room for it you can always share it with a friend or two.

I have not seen the Black Plastic sold in pieces off the roll but I have used garbage bags (slit along the sides) and Co-ops and such sell it in narrower strips. A roll here is 20 ft X100 ft. I like the full sheet rather than strips. The plastic woven mulch, that Landscape Suppliers sell, is expensive and does not work well as the weeds and particularly 'Quack or Twitch Grass' will come up through it. There is a grass I am not familiar with called 'Nut Grass' that apparently will come up through concrete. The method does not work well with raised beds because they tend to dry out around the edges, but planting in flat beds works great and I recommend it as there is less soil compaction.

Moisture is Retained-- for plant use and also the sod composts under the plastic enhancing bacterial growth. Worms thrive on the rotted sod, weeds and roots and multiply rapidly. Did you ever pick up a large rock or some boards laying on the ground and see lots of worms?

Competition of weeds and grasses for soil nutrients and water is eliminated.

Warms the Soil-- slightly for earlier planting and extends the harvest season.

Allows for Closer Spacing of plants thereby increasing yields.

Uniform Moisture to Plants-- very important to Tomatoes virtually eliminating Blossom End Rot due to uneven watering.

Eliminates Staking of plants--- and keeps the fruit clean as it's sitting on the plastic.

Helps to Prevent Compaction-- especially when used with beds.

Kills Quack Grass-- the all pervasive, never ending bane of gardeners everywhere. Cultivating soil with Quack Grass increases it by chopping the roots up which send up new shoots. For this one reason alone it is worthwhile to use.

Eliminates Watering, Weeding and Turning of the Soil-- many experts say the soil should not be turned and advocate using a 'Chisel Plough" which loosens the earth rather than turning it over, which upset the eco-system of the soil. The top soil should be top-soil as nature intended it.

Saves Labour

Getting Started

As with any method there is the easy, the better and the best-ways to use it. I will explain each and next week will give planting tips I have learned from experience. If you have used this method please feel free to share with me your tips.

Best-- is to start a year ahead of time. If you already have a garden prepared and want to switch to this method. Prepare your garden as usual adding compost etc, then soak the ground thoroughly and cover it with black plastic weighing the edges of the plastic down with stones, clumps of sod turned upside down or boards.

If you are starting a garden for the first time I find it best to have it ploughed or tilled (just this once) adding manure or compost, Whatever lime is needed, mineral supplements etc and follow directions above.

The easy method, if it is good soil is to soak the ground, having mowed and level the area first and cover with the plastic as above. It is important to mow the grasses and the weeds to get the plastic as flat on the ground as you can. The weeds will keep on growing for a couple of weeks even with the plastic on top of them. Walk on the plastic to flatten them down. Better than this is to loosen the soil to get air into it.

Just go in the depth of the shovel and lean the handle way back to lift the soil and break it up a bit to loosen it. I have grown cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, peppers, the cole family and countless flowers without loosening or digging the soil and all did very well in good soil.

This was done just prior to planting time but the sooner you can get the plastic on the ground the better as it begins the composting process. The better the edges of the plastic are sealed off with sod etc the quicker the soil will compost. It takes two to three years to kill off Quack Grass.

Just prior to spring planting use a pitchfork or a garden rake to punch holes through the plastic. About a foot and a half between punctures is sufficient. This allows rain to enter and a bit of air. The plastic will be shiny when you first put it down and will dull down after a while. I throw shovels full of dirt, scattered around and after a few weeks and some rain it almost looks like dark soil. I had a dog who would leap over the plastic thinking it was water, I guess.

You can get a head start on spring by placing clear plastic over the black plastic with a couple inches of space between them. Use sod or smooth stones or little blocks of 2x4s and seal the edges well. This creates a greenhouse effect and temps can get well over 100 degrees warming the soil underneath. A trench about 6 inches deep, dug around the perimeter enhances the soil warming even more creating a thermal break.

The earlier the plastic is laid down the better. If you want to test this method out on a smaller scale slit a garbage bag down the sides, wet the sod good and try growing a couple of tomato plants and compare it to your regular garden. You can even grow lettuce and radish around the tomato plants while they are small. Next week I will explain how to plant but for those who are curious, you simply cut an X in the plastic, dig a hole, add some compost and the bedding plant.

Another way for smaller plants is to drive a steel pin or round piece of hardwood a foot or more into the soil through the plastic. (the further into the soil the better) Twirl the pin around and make a funnel shaped hole till it's 3 to 4" in diameter at the top. Fill the hole with compost and plant. The roots can down to the subsoil very easily and if you plant root veggies such as carrots, parsnips, beets etc. you will be amazed at the size they will grow and quickly. Below is an easier way of growing small seeds.

I have used this method with flower gardens putting an inch or two of soil on top of the plastic after poking holes through it and it worked well. With existing perennials in clumps it is best to remove them and take all the weeds out and replant them especially with bulbs and corms.

There are tricks to this type of planting especially with seeds.

For seeds like carrots, and lettuce and such there is a little more work involved.

The idea is to get the plastic down as soon as possible on very wet ground that is soaked to a depth of six inches or more to start the composting under the plastic. I will post the second part to do with planting seeds as soon as I find it and if not will have to rewrite it. Large individual seeds are no problem. Just dig a hole and put some compost in, maybe the size of a soup can. (Might as well explain it now but there is much more in part 2.)

For small seeds you need to make a trench of compost. First make a flap in the plastic. Make a cut about 3 to 4 ft long and then a cut at each end |______________| to make a flap. Tuck the flap under the plastic and dig out a trench 3 or 4 inches deep and fill this with compost of sifted high quality topsoil. Plant the seeds along the edge opposite to the hinged side. When the seedlings are up pull the flap back to cover the soil and weight it down with soil, sod, stones or boards.

After the first year you don't have to do the above procedure because the sod will have rotted underneath, but compost for starting is always a helpful beginning. If you have any questions or problems let me know.

Heavy feeders like squash and such you may want to cut a large X and add a half shovel full of compost or rich soil. After the plant is up, close the X and place bits of sod covering the cuts in the plastic. Place the sod upside down over the cracks, or bits of board or stones, or cardboard to cover the slits totally so no weeds find their way up through it. This may seem like a bit of work but the end result is well worth it for twitch grass and such will find it's way up and continue to live.

When the plants are up and you start to get the odd weed coming along side of them cut the weeds with scissors or shears so you aren't pulling the roots of the vegetable to bits. Then heap soil over the cut weeds or pull the plastic around them. In a few years you will have a weed free garden. The odd weed comes up through the ventilation and water holes and these you can pull and try and get the root with it by grabbing right at the base of the weed. Let me know if you have any questions.

If deer are a problem, *Bounce* keeps them away. Yes, those strips you put in your clothes dryer- they don't like the smell. I put a strip or two in plastic margarine containers, drill quarter inch holes around the sides and a little hole drilled in the top with a piece of wire looped. Hang these around your garden ten to twenty feet apart and the deer stay out. If you put those containers on the ground before the little critters know you have a garden, the smell will keep many of them away. Once they have found your veggies the "invisible fence" doesn't work.

You can actually just hang Bounce in trees and it will work but every time it rains you have to replace it.

I know it's spring somewhere on this planet and though we around minus 15C at the moment I can feel an awful itch in my thumbs, yup both of them. Well the next best thing to gardening is dreaming about it and then writing about it. Guess I will go weed my house plants and prune them a little, maybe start a few cuttings to satisfy that perennial itching thumb. If you have any questions about my method feel free to email me.

Until next time, good gardenin'.

In areas of drought it is such a blessing as it conserves rainfall. Veggies aren't going to get any cheaper and I have put in a garden in a few hours and other than pulling the odd weed that comes up around the plants and harvesting, there is little work.

^i^ BE A GARDEN ANGEL ^i^ **************************

Grow an extra row in your garden for the food bank. -- ^i^ and reap the rewards. ^i^

You always have more zuchinni than you have friends. ~dc

Every gardener needs a good sense of humus. ~dc

Any questions or tips on using this method please email me at davidcoyote@care2.com

More from David here.
_{Webmasters' Note:
A very special Thank You to David for sharing his tips.}