SOLARIZATION

Good sanitation can do wonders for your vegetable garden spot. If your vegetable garden has finished producing, now's the time to clean it up and consider solarization or, in the alternative, planting a cover crop.

If you plant your vegetable garden in the same spot year after year, diseases build up and hit the plants earlier and earlier. August is a prime time for solarization as it works best when it's hot, but September can still be a hot month, making it worth your effort. Till the garden spot as completely as you can, wet it down heavily, and cover the garden spot with black plastic, making sure the plastic and soil have firm contact. Leave it covered for at least six weeks or, alternatively, if you are done for the entire vegetable season, leave it covered all winter and remove the plastic and plant next spring.

This method works well for sites where you would like to plant wildflowers, also. After you have left the plastic on for at least six weeks, remove the plastic and sow your wildflower seeds. In northern hardiness zones 1-6, wildflowers seeded in late fall will remain in the soil and germinate the following spring. Or leave the plastic on all winter and remove in early spring and seed your wildflowers.