Thank you, RCMG volunteers, for your hard work removing weeds and-or installing the plastic sheeting at Edgerton Community Garden! – Carole Gernes
RCMG has partnered with Edgerton Community
Gardens in Maplewood for many years. This year, the community garden leadership asked for help clearing an area around the raised beds which had become overgrown with weeds including Canada thistle, goldenrod, burdock and stinging nettle.
The community garden is organic, meaning pesticides are not permitted for control methods, which makes physical removal necessary. After weed removal, garden leadership plants to treat the areas with aggressive weeds with a type of occultation, also known as solarization.
Solarization is the process of cover an area with clear plastic to heat up the soil underneath. This encourages seed germination and plant growth but ultimately kills the vegetation underneath.
Working between July and September, a group of volunteers spent 2-hour shifts at the community garden to clear the area so solarization sheets could be installed. Once clear of weeds, special plastic sheet were installed and pinned down. These will remain in place until next year and hopefully suppress weed growth next season.
Big Thanks
Thank you to all of the volunteers who participated in this project!
Lisa Pearson
Nanette Boudreau
Cynthia Anderson
Julie Wegscheid
Sue Mason
Amanda Jackson Wilber
Jan Fransen
Juliana Forster
Fun Fun Cheng
Next Steps
Site coordinator Carole Gernes wants to invite all Master Garden volunteers to check out the solarization progress. "Please stop by to check out the progress during the next year plus! I’ll make recommendations for pollinator-supporting native plants to be planted in spring of 2023."
Learn more about Solarization
Read the Extension article "Using the sun to kill weeds and prepare garden plots"
Listen to Episode 21 of the What's Killing My Kale? podcast: Solarization for Weed Management with Courtney Tchida