This is an old question. However, I want to clarify a bit for folks who are new to growing with plastic mulch in large sheets. Dennis explianed it well. I'lI just add my four cents. Which is way too much. So here's the short version 1- Dennis is right and use big sheets 2- make round holes, they tear less. 3- pick up and store plastic away from winter UV 4- don't worry about the weeds and grass. do not till, add compost only at the holes, before putting down the plastic. Water only until the plants are established. A week or 2. No irrigation needed. Ever. Well, maybe in the SW. 5- soil is 5° cooler under black plastic in the summer (Rodale c.1985). 6- Relax, until Mid August then protect from fifty-five° I'm not kidding! The long version. I have been raising melons, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and more, using six mil or thicker black plastic since the nineteen seventies. My parents started with ten mil (I think), which I inherited and it lasted eight years of leaving it out year round. The winter UV finally killed iit. My first suggestion is that you roll it up and store it in a dark place. I get six years or more out of six mil black. Pre-drilling with inch holes is a great idea and I'll try it at about one foot intervals. I just poke holes in puddles when they appear. His nail on a broomstick in a better idea than my method of using whatever is at hand. Why? Because plastic tears in a line. If you make a longitudinal cut, instead of a round hole or puncture, in later years it will tear more easily. So, do not make your planting holes with an "x". Make them round with scissors, or as I do. I cut both ends of a can, around four to five in diam, hold it with vise grips and heat the other end with a propane torch. Take a deep breath and psst, cut a nice round, sealed hole and put the circle in a trash bsg . For melons I use six foot diagonal spacing. Less for tomatoes, even less for peppers, eggplant, basil, etc. Plan well, because that's the configuration for years to come. I often use twenty by twenty sheets so I could just turn it each year for crop rotation. You might just slide it down the length of the garden, if north south orientation augers against turning the layout Now, its about time to plant. Clear plastic will heat up your ground before you plant. Black plastic will not. Clear plastic solarization is thought by some to disturb/ destroy the beneficial biota of you topsoil. So heat with caution and read more to find your way. That aside: in spite of the wind, lay the black plastic on the ground...no need to weed or cultivate. Drive a short stake into the center of each hole. Pick up the plastic and prepare the area at each stake as you wish. I try to remove a half bushel or more of soil to my compost and fill each hole with a compost soil mix. Replace the plastic. Batten down the edges with soil, stones boards, etc. Plant and water individually, as needed for a week or two. Then forget about it. You may need to weed three inches on all sides of each plant. You will not need irrigation. You have stopped evaporation. The ground in most regions is wet when you plant. It will stay perfectly moist all summer. I have had a few six week periods of eighty to a hundred degrees and no rain w/o water stress. Rodale tested mulches sometime in the eighties and determined that six mil black plastic kept the soil five degrees cooler than bare soil. For me the major problem with melon production is that i crowd them. So stepping on the vines as I pick and some mildew. I do not lift the melons off the plastic, but puncture a puddle occupied by a melon. Bigger still is that after over thirty years, I cannot tell if a watermelon is ripe. Beware the heartbreak of late collapse in canteloupes! Fifty-five degrees will make you cry in the August dawn. Get some cover material and get out there on that cool evening, when the clouds go away. A few nights later,you can relax until fall. That's for Western Oregon, Wash, Penna, and the garden state. In NH prepare to keep the patch above fifty- five. Sorry about the length... I just love eating melons!

Some years ago when the idea of 20% vinegar for weed control appeared on GW I had the same question. Living not to far from a major vinegar works, I picked up the phone and called them. Answer...The various types of vinegars (which basically are organic) are reduced to powder form and then reconstituted into whatever strength/flavor is called for. So, there is no problem mixing up a 20% batch. Be carefully with that strength vinegar. It is powerful stuff!

Stephen, pics please??? I would love to see what you have growing. Thank you Vladimir..What's the point of the question? There are many here that ABSOLUTELY need to use vinegar in their fertilizer solution and those that are lucky they do not have too. I see no point in it at all because everyone's water and pH is different. Some use rain water and some have tap that is just right, while others can't use rain water and others have the worst tap like I do. Some can't afford the other products suggested for their potted plants and use vinegar as a cheaper method that does work for the short term every time they fertilize. I'd like to know who uses it, regularly, and what happens over time when they stop? Sounds like a great thread I should start. ) There are going to be those that swear by it like I do, and many that have seen unbelievable/remarkable improvements in their trees within days , so good that they have no need to come here for help any more for YELLOWING , dull , and poorly nutrient fed almost lifeless trees, and then those who keep looking for answers to get them as vivd green and as healthy as possible as some folks around here. Vinegar as been very useful just as other acidifying products out there, especially for potted plants...Another tool in the bag sort of to say...... Also too, I can see the difference between those that make sure their pH is in harmony with their fertilizer over the years here, as compared to those that give pH no consideration especially for potted trees. A select few say they don't use vinegar at all and in my opinion not that it matters have less than ideal vivid trees to me, and many that use other products which I would like to know about that works and theirs look great..Now that would be very helpful. don't you agree? By the way, vinegar does a great job at lowering the fertilizer solution which is why many use it, and not for the purpose of lowering the 'soil' pH. Have a great day my friend Mike

Toronto Vetenerian, Thanks. I was thinking exactly the same thing that the bottles would have all toppled the first time I pulled out the drawer quickly. Editing: we are thinking of selling our current house and moving into one of our rental houses (for tax reasons.) We would probably live there 3 to 5 years before figuring out where we want to retire. I would be giving up my beautiful kitchen. I told my husband the only way I would do this is if I got to redo the kitchens and baths in the old house. I would do it on a very tight budget. It has to be consistent with the neighborhood and the house. That would mean a huge EDITING for me. I still have some time. I am just perusing through ideas so that I can do it on a budget and still get the big bang I want.