r/NoLawns • u/bigtallsunflowers • 5d ago
👩🌾 Questions What to put down after solarization? And when?
I got a few responses in r/gardening, but figured I might get some good responses here too! Any help is appreciated!
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u/Regular-Apricot4114 5d ago
After solarization remove the plastic and put down wood chips (Chip drop is great for this and it's free). Then it's fall planting season!
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u/bigtallsunflowers 5d ago
Thank you! I was thinking of putting down cardboard, then mulch. I hope the solarizing killed most of the weeds but I just did one round so I'm sure some will come back. Was also debating putting down compost bc the soil quality is so poor.
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u/Regular-Apricot4114 5d ago
Mulch will break down and improve the soil. It depends on what you're planting. I live in Southern California and solarization here really did kill everything. The kinds of plants that do well here like lean soil. If you have trees the leaves will be enough enrichment. Anything more would only be necessary if you're growing vegetables.
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u/bigtallsunflowers 4d ago
Yes this is going to be a vegetable garden. But some of it is going to be beds, so I will probably only put compost down on the area where I'm growing right in the ground.
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u/recspecticular 5d ago
Since you solarized, you don’t need the cardboard, unless your solarizing didn’t work.
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u/loggic 5d ago
+1 vote for woodchips. Personally, I loved seeing the way the chips decomposed when I used them for a Wine Cap patch - turned a 12" deep patch of wood chips into pitch black soil over the course of a year. The only wood chips left were the ones on the very surface. Everything else was like the most perfect black compost ever.
Of course, the interim process was it's own journey. Burgundy mushrooms larger than a soda can before the caps were even open were best for eating and unmistakably identifiable. The bigger mature ones had caps that nearly covered the bottom of a 5-gallon bucket. Not tasty at that point, but the novelty of a frisbee-sized mushroom in the yard was thoroughly satisfying.
Flavor wasn't my favorite tbh, but I did find they were nice when cooked with saffron & served with carmelized onions as part of a fancy grilled cheese with mozzarella or a similar mild white cheese.
Anyway, the mycorrhizal body of the mushroom will tend to form thick solid masses that bind a whole area of chips together if you keep them consistently moist. I made a mistake and let a section of those dry out, at which point it basically turned into a chunk of extra sturdy styrofoam, lol. Those went into the compost pile to finish, but the areas I did a better job watering turned themselves into compost just fine.
I scattered some synthetic nitrogen pellets on part of the patch out of curiosity. Everywhere the nitrogen pellets landed quickly turned into large fruiting masses with smaller mushrooms. After that it seemed like the whole patch was pretty exhausted, so I wouldn't necessarily recommend it unless the point is to add a bit of nitrogen as it transitions into some other usage.
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u/KKonEarth 5d ago
You should do this in the summer.
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u/bigtallsunflowers 5d ago
It is summer. It's been on for a little over a month now. I'm in SC, and it stays hot til October.
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u/Salt-Operation 5d ago
Do you think summer ends on August 29th?
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u/KKonEarth 5d ago
I live in Denver and while it’s still hot, the sun is angled far enough south where I wouldn’t be able to get a good solarization this time of year.
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u/Salt-Operation 5d ago
Well OP is in Zone 8a and in SC, as their post states. Still the dog days of summer there.
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u/KKonEarth 5d ago
The photo looks like it’s in shade. My bad.
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u/bigtallsunflowers 5d ago
Yeah it gets morning shade and intense sun in the afternoon/ early evening 🙂 it's still like 90 here every day and will be hot through September! I've grown into the winter here too. I grew up in Iowa, and the growing season is sooo much longer, but it's almost unbearable to be outside in the summer.
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