Ten years ago, when I only seven or eight years old….. I remember helping my grandfather in his garden. Every year he had very large garden, some of the first vegetable and the tallest corn around.

How did he do it? He covered the entire garden with thick, black plastic. When it came time to plant he would poke holes in the plastic and put the seeds in. Honestly it is difficult for me to recommend this method of gardening for a few reasons but again, I am trying to help you see that where there is a will, there is a way.

As I mentioned, I don’t recommend this type of gardening on a continuous basis but it does have it’s place and it’s benefits. For example thick, black plastic can be a good, organic way to kill the grass and weeds in a future garden plot. Or, maybe you didn’t have time to properly prepare a garden spot. You may want to put some plastic down to discourage weeds your first year. Or, plastic can be used to cover a particular area of the garden in order to keep the rain off of it so that it will be drier sooner so that you can plant sooner.

If you’re going to utilize black plastic in the garden make sure you use at least 3 mil. thick and really it should be 6 mil. black plastic. Unfortunately plastic is a petroleum product and so therefor it is priced accordingly. In my grandfather’s day it was much more economical. You will also want to have a plan for what you’re going to do with the plastic after you use it in the garden. Once 6 mil black plastic is unrolled it is big, bulky and it does not break down well in land fills although these days I think refuse is usually incinerated.

Anyway, this is just an idea that may or may not work for your situation. I just wanted to share this with you to spur on your imagination. In the days to come you will need to step out of the controlled box that people want to keep you in and use your imagination to be creative. That is how Yahweh designed you.

I’ll see you out in the field,
Parson Rayphe