Can I ask why you dont use a plastic mulch or weed barrier? Weed Barriers can be expensive but they allow water to flow through them and replenish any needed nutrients from the sun. I feel like a tarp could really do some damage to your soil if left on for the entire season. I don't know for sure though, just wondering.

Here is a link that might be useful: Home Gardening Tips

Damage would be good. I >REALLYYour typical black plastic is nice, but it doesn't extend past the row - so I've still got weeds in the row. It also can't stand up to any sort of foot traffic.

Weed barrier? Tried that last year and got the same sad results many others have. Weed barrier just doesn't seem to cut it unless it's covered with a mulch of some sort - and unless I'm going to have a dump truck dumping 12 cubic yards daily for a week or so, that's not happening.

Probably the biggest issue with these tarps is they're (unfortunately) not suitable for around my fruit trees, because I do care about the soil there, though I still want nothing growing on top of the soil... Not sure what I'm going to do there. Cardboard doesn't work because I can't keep it down (wind), the area is to big for paper (though the paper would work right around the tree if I had something else to cover further out), regular mulch is still going to require a lot of hauling and will require a lot of yearly reinforcing if I don't want weeds through it - not to mention expense.

I had 3 40-year old cedar trees die within weeks of each other, likely due to poisoning from a malicious neighbor. That area may or may not be toxic for a long time, and was weed choked. So I laid down black plastic and put growing containers on top (Self watering containers to be exact). It's done very well for me, though some day I'll dig up the stumps and turn it into a real garden bed.

It works but is ugly.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sinfonian's garden adventure

Was it plastic or a tarp and how did you go about securing it?

gblack, I don't know what type of tarp you're considering, but I would recommend against the standard woven tarp - any time we've used those for a yard or garden purpose they've shredded horribly, made a complete mess, and the resulting strings have posed a hazard to wildlife (and our cats, for that matter.)

I just bought a new nylon (non-woven) tarp that I'm hoping will be better - it is a reused billboard advertisement, which I think is a neat idea. They say it's three layer, very strong, UV stabilized nylon. There is an ad on one side, but the other is solid black or white. They come in enormous sizes and I thought the prices were reasonable.

And if you hate your soil that much I certainly think this'd do the trick :)

Where did you get your billboard tarp? Any sort of specs on it?

The one I'm considering is black on one side, green on the other, 10 mil thick, 12x14 weave, UV treated, etc. I ran across post and pictures from another gardener who had used a tarp with the same specs and had already used it for 3 years and estimated the tarp would last him 5 years total.

Thanks!!

My apologies - I said nylon but meant vinyl. Anyway, they are 3-ply vinyl, 20 mil., UV Treated.

To be honest I got my tarp but haven't opened the box yet so I can't yet give you personal impressions, but I will try to do so today.

Don't know how the cost compares to the tarp you've found, but I thought it was a good price for mine. I was specifically looking for a vinyl tarp, though, because of the problems I've encountered with the woven ones.

Here is a link that might be useful: Billboard Tarps

I was hoping maybe you had a cheaper source or something. You've made me think a bit though - I may try calling around to some of the local billboard companies to see if there are some options though. What I'm looking at currently though is cheaper.

Now given, it's only half the thickness, but the other individual using a tarp with this specs (I suspect it was the same tarp) got pretty good milage out of it and had some photos where his usage looked like what I'm trying to do. Unfortunately he hasn't posted in a while so I didn't get a response to my questions :(

One of the things I was curious about is how he cut the neat holes.

Here is a link that might be useful: Heavy Duty Tarp