Weed control - using tarps and plastics to prepare ground and control weeds

Many of you may know that we live on a homestead in South Africa and have prepared our lands for vegetable growth.
This takes time and efforts, so I would like to share with you some of the methods which work brilliantly. Especially the land preparation method that will save you hours of time, and probably a lot of money too.

When approaching new land, there is a very serious issue of clearing the land for the crops you have decided to grow. If the land is anything like the land we bought, then it will either take large machinery (at high cost) to clear the bushes, weeds and growth OR many hours of hard labour to do it.
Neither is a motivator for someone looking to get stuck into actually getting things to grow, not destroying other vegetation.

Enter the tarps/plastic covers....a real game changer.

I was investigating and learning on how to do things when I saw some overseas farmers using tarps to control weeds on their property. This intrigued me, and so I decided to buy 6 large 35m x 12m heavy duty tarps, and about 2km thin plastic rolls in order to use as we plant.
But then, why just use after we have planted, why not use on the initial removal of weeds too? This is what we did.

Heavily overgrown areas
Flattening the large bushes as much as we could, we then covered sections of land with the heavy duty plastic and anchored them down with 100 bags filled with sand. We also used bricks to anchor some of the plastics.
Then you wait....3 to 4 months. In that time we built watering systems, got greenhouses ready, prepared work areas and the like.
Lift the plastics up and all that was under them has completely died, and for the most part become a great food for the soil.

Lightly overgrown areas
On the sections of land that weren't totally overgrown, we were able to go one step further. We ploughed the ground weeds and all, threw fertilizer on the ground, watered it, then covered it for 3-4 months as well.
This stimulated the growth of any plants that had seeded in the ground. All the moisture was trapped under the plastic, further stimulating the growth of the seeds in the soil.
Of course they would grow, and with the lack of light, they would die and become further fertilizer for the soil.

This has proven to be a massive boost to those sections of land. It has made the management of weeds thereafter, manageable with the few hands in the family and the tools which I will post about tomorrow.

Check out the video below of our little property for more information on how it worked.

Using plastics in your garden with crops
We also used the thinner plastic to keep weeds at bay for some of our personal garden area. Anchoring the plastics in the ground, we then cut holes into the plastic for the plants to be planted into.
This keeps all the weeds out of the garden areas that you are not working on.

Unfortunately Im not sure how they will react to the lack of water that filters down (perhaps why they use tarps and not plastics?) or how to feed the soil after we have harvested the crops. These are lessons still to be learned through experience and learning.
Another thing this does however is also keep some of the pests away from the roots of the plants. Things like the root fly would not get to the roots of the plant if you have a little mulch and plastics around the tree/plant.

Carrots protected by plastic

Newly planted pepperdews

This really is a great method of preparing and maintaining weeds in the gardens. Using this method and then other methods I will discuss later, you as a small farmer (or even large) would benefit from it.

Good luck and blessing to those that are going to try it.

Justin

[1st image credited to youtube]