The photo above shows the results of two different solarization experiments. On the right, two-week-old soybeans are happily growing in ground that used to be a mass of ground ivy prior to solarization (begun two weeks before planting). The weeds have nearly completely decayed into the soil and the soybeans appear to be thriving. There are a few smartweeds coming up from seeds, but none of the perennial weeds have regrown at all.

On the left, you can see a newly solarized area, the ground-ivy debris still lying dead on the soil surface. I could have ripped up those weeds by hand, but the bed would have lost all of that organic matter and my fingers would have been exhausted afterwards. Instead, five minutes of work results in richer soil ready for a round of cover crops.

I've been pretty tentative with my solarization experiments so far because I initially didn't buy into the technique. But with so many successes under my belt, I asked Mark to buy me another roll of clear plastic and am preparing half of our brussels sprouts beds using the lazy-gardener method. The photo above shows a bed that used to be weedy lettuce (full of red clover), which I scythed, then topdressed with soiled goat bedding, and (after the photo was taken) covered with a sheet of clear plastic. I'm excited to see what the soil will look like in three weeks when the brussels sprouts are ready to go into the ground. Maybe solarization will become my fast-and-easy soil prep step in future garden years?