Soleraization

[Jamie Calloway]

Well I started my new garden site today and thought I would post the process here over the next couple of months. It went pretty good this morning except for the fact that we had winds today from 10 to 15 miles per hour. I felt like an idiot chasing down the plastic sheet all over the front yard and was even lucky enough to have someone honk at me from the road. But I digress.
1. Step one was to find the spot I wanted to start the new garden at. I went with a spot that I knew would get full sun one because I checked it every hour for 10 hours and two because I bought a sun calculator and it also said full sun. I went with a spot where the grass looked really green and lush thinking the soil must be pretty decent there. I wanted to make sure I was as far as I could get from two tree lines in hopes that I would not have to deal to much with large roots while I was tilling. I made the garden 30 feet away from both tree lines, which was as far as I could go without getting in front of the house.
The garden will be 25' x 20' and thanks to @Chuck I will be using the soleraization method in hopes to make my tilling job a little easier. Basically I spread a plastic sheet with the dimensions above on top of grass that I previously soaked down with the water hose. I laid out 12' milled oak boards down (They weigh a ton) to keep the plastic from blowing away and pulled it as tight as I could to the ground. My hope over time the grass will rot and make the tilling a lot easier. After a month or so I will till up the garden inevitably being up more grass and weeds seeds to the top where I will again cover the area and let it sit again for a month or so. I will continue to do this until all the grass and weeds are tilled up. I am still expecting there to be some weeds popping up over time but hopefully the bulk of them will be gone. Here are some pictures of where I am at right now.

Ridiculous

 

[Purrfluff]

I just read about this process yesterday and find it interesting. Please do keep updating.

 

[Durgan]

A sod removal tool and a bit of work accomplishes the same thing.
http://www.durgan.org/URL/?MEUFO 22 September 2008 New Garden Bed Prepared

A new garden bed was prepared. (About 8 by 25 feet)The underlying soil is clay. The pictures depict the procedure.
First the sod was removed with manual kick sod cutter.
The underlying packed clay was hand spaded.
The spaded chunks were broken into small pieces using a rototiller.
The sod was put through a shipper shredder. This absolutely destroys the grass roots.
The broken sod was worked into the underlying soil.
A layer of good compost was applied and worked in.
A layer of wood chips was applied and worked in. This was to apply some fiber.
Since this bed won’t be used until next year a cover crop of annual clover was planted.
This process only takes about four hours of applied effort.

 

[Durgan]

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?FVHED 9 May 2012 Removing Sod
Often in a home garden it is necessary to remove sod for a garden bed and planting trees. It can be a tedious task. My method is to use a kick sod cutter which was purchased about 7 years ago, and put to good use. They can be rented, but when needed this can be inconvenient.

Operation is simple. The soil should be damp, better just after a very heavy rain.Wear heavy work boots. Under ideal conditions a kick will propel the cutter eight inches or more depending upon the wetness of the soil. In my case the sod is placed out to dry slightly and put through the chipper/shredder, and placed back on the area selected. The chipper/shredder completely kills all grass roots.

 

[Durgan]

New Garden Area
Posted on May 10, 2012 by Durgan
A new garden area (150 square feet)was prepared for planting. The steps are, remove the sod, hand spade, rototill the spaded chunks, add wood chip fibre, add compost, add sand. Coconut coir fibre will be added, when I find some and worked in. Later after the sod dries somewhat, it will be put through the chipper/shredder and placed back on the area and rototilled in with the sand.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?FVHED 9 May 2012 Removing Sod
Often in a home garden it is necessary to remove sod for a garden bed and planting trees. It can be a tedious task. My method is to use a kick sod cutter which was purchased about 7 years ago, and put to good use. They can be rented, but when needed this can be inconvenient.

Operation is simple. The soil should be damp, better just after a very heavy rain.Wear heavy work boots. Under ideal conditions a kick will propel the cutter eight inches or more depending upon the wetness of the soil. In my case the sod is placed out to dry slightly and put through the chipper/shredder, and placed back on the area selected. The chipper/shredder completely kills all grass roots.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?YOUPY 9 May 2012 Hand Spading
The area is hand spaded using as long blade tool. The soil is quite compacted under the sod, and rototilling alone is not sufficient. The area is nearly 26 feet by 6 feet, total of about 150 square feet.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?SCSAO 9 May 2012 Rototilling spaded chunks of earth.
The large spaaded chunks were rototilled to break them up. Soil is loose to an approximate depth of 12 inches.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?TTIRQ 9 May 2012 Adding fibre
Wood chips were added to increase fibre. Some urea (nitrogen) was added to replace any nitrogen lost in the chips decomposing.The chips were worked into the soil using the small Honda FG110 rototiller.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?QSIPC 9 May 2012 Adding Compost
About a cubic yard of compost was added to the new bed (150 Square feet). This was worked into the soil using the small Honda FG110 rototiller.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?CUWIU 9 May 2012 Adding Sand
Sand is added to my beds to inhibit the compost from coagulating, plus sand supports aeration, and moisture flow. It is nutrient neutral and lasts forever.The sand was rototilled in, picture not shown.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?ZFRDI 10 May 2012 Shredding Sod
The sod was dried in he Sun for one day and put through the Chipper/Shredder and placed on the bed and rototilled in.The sod must be fed in small chunks to prevent jamming. If the sod is too dry much dust is created, so there is a happy medium gained by experience. The bed is now complete.

 

[Durgan]

Enlarging the Vegetable Garden Area.
Posted on December 25, 2011 by Durgan
Enlarging the Vegetable Gardening Area 8 by 36 Feet. Annotations are on bottom left of photos.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?CJQIH 30 April 2006 Garden Addition
Sod Removed using kick sod cutter, Spaded and rototilled.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?RRIOX 3 May 2006 Adding Compost
http://www.durgan.org/URL/?PRGEX 4 May 2006 Adding compost
Compost added and worked in.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?YETZA 5 May 2006 Enlarged Bed Completed.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?KIZFW 7 May 2006 Fiber addition.
Fiber: Covering of wood chips. Sod put through chipper/shredder and worked in (no pictures for the chipper operation). The chipper/shredder effectively kills completely all grass roots.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?AKDON 30 June 2006 Vegetables in Enlarged Bed
Planted area to indicate the success of the new garden bed.

 

[Jamie Calloway]

Thanks for all of the articles @Durgan, I went with the soleraization method mostly because last year after having my little above ground pool moved I noticed how the grass was soft and it instantly hit me that this would be a great way to get rid of grass. At the time I had never heard of soleraization. I have so much work to do on this farm that I am hoping this will be a effective and efficient way of finishing the first step. I have set my alarm to go off on October 1st to check it and see if it's ready.

 

[Durgan]

I tried by smothering the grass with a tarp. Lo and behold after s ix weeks the grass was two feet high under the tarp. Enough light leaked through to make the grass thrive. Unless the tarp is solid forget the stupid method. Honk.

 

[Durgan]

Solarization is the spelling.

 

[Jamie Calloway]

Why does my phone keep spelling it soleraization, weird.

 

[Greenhorn]

Good job there. The biggest mistake I see people doing is using the black plastic. I've also heard 3-4 months covered and all is done, no need to uncover, till and recover. This would be through peak warm season. Very interested as I have a small area, about 6' x 12' that I have been thaink about trying this on. Old grass, weeds and crab grass.

 

[Jamie Calloway]

Not sure what's going to happen here @Greenhorn. I think the only thing I did wrong was timing, I should have started this at the beginning of summer. Although it's still pretty hot here until late October early November. I'll keep you guys updated.

 

[GardenStateGardner]

I may attempt this as well.

 

[Jamie Calloway]

Just a quick update on the solArizarion method. It's been 9 days since I put the tarp down and we have yet to have a day with temps over 90 degrees. I thought it might end up taking 6 months but it's actually looking pretty good considering the cooler temps we have been having. You can really tell the difference in the second picture of the green grass on the edge and the yellow grass further in.

 

[Durgan]

There is a long way to go. You want bare ass earth with no growth visible.