I think with all the combative language, we have missed an important part of this site: there are TREES there. So the effects of solarization will be substantially reduced. Solarization is mostly used to control soil diseases and nematodes that run rampant in parts of California, studies have shown it only effects about 2" of the soil in terms of sterlization of dormant seeds - it is not really what you need. Just scrape off whatever you can, get some black filter cloth - it blocks light but not water - and put it down, then starting building up some bew compost with whatever you can get your hands on - layer it onto the black cloth and try to get it about 12" deep. You can cut the cloth open in some areas to put in a larger addition, but be sure to remove the soil from the hole and dispose of it rather than mixing it into the compost. Your area will not be hot enough long enough to use solarization for weed removal and the lack of a heat containment below soil during solarization makes its efficiency just terrible related to the work and time required to do it.

I'm in Michigan, so snow can be significant. The weather has changed so much over the years, it's hard to say how much we'll get this coming winter. Will the amount of snowfall affect the decomposition? Does the moisture promote it even when it's well below freezing? I'm sure we'll go through a few thaws before, or at the time of, early spring. The leaf drop doesn't seem to be too heavy when I mulch it up once or twice a week, however, in reality, it comes from 3 or 4 huge maples. You say that the mulched leaves can be a topdressing. Do you think that seed will fall below the mulched leaves? THAT I wouldn't be too worried about. Thanks,

Greeting from another Michigan wintersower! I have some asters, not sure what kind though, they were snatched from some-one elses flowerbed(with permission).Drk purple and about two ft high. How about some rugosa roses and grape hyacinths?? Echinacea would be good too, the kids might not see the flowers but could watch the birds that eat the seed. I have all those seed. You might also try perennial sweet pea if you've got the room-mine are still around but I don't have any seed right now. Also try wild violets-I have plants but no seed. -B

Art61, I'd definitely be interested in your cardinal flower seed if you find you have any extra once you've filled your own needs. I let all my native columbines self seed and there is already a new patch of tiny babies starting despite the horrid drought we'd had for about a month. IMHO, protection of the red mulberry is only one facet of what needs to be done. You can plant as many pure red mulberries as you want but if the gene pool is disturbed by the continued importation and planting of the white mulberry, ALL planted or natural red mulberries will continue to be at risk. We have an old, very unkempt arboretum here in Woodstock and it has a mature white mulberry and I'm going to firmly request that it's time to take it down. It can be replaced with something of a more native nature, even if it's not native to our general area, at least it could be native to Canada or Canada and the north-east of USA. It's a danger to our native stocks and serves little purpose in the arboretum which is not the attraction that it should be in our booming little town. Now it is down to finding the time to write the appropriate persons about taking down the tree and see what comes of it. Good luck in your search for your mulberries. I'll let you know if I find any unaffected red mulberries (not likely since there are so few pristine red mulberry left in the whole of the country...they say as low as 80 trees left in canada) in my neck of the woods and collect some seed for you. Here's an eye opening article from the University of Guelph that shows the state of the Red Mulberry and how the white mulberry needs to be eradicated in order for the red to rebound. IMHO with such a small genepool as only 80 specimens, the species may already be doomed as small gene pools almost always mean death to a species as they are not able to survive disease and infestations as those in cases of diverse genepools. At any rate, here's the article: http://www.uoguelph.ca/research/news/articles/1998/preserving_legendary_mulberry.shtml Barb southern Ontario, CANADA