Solarizing

so·lar·ize  (sl-rz): v. so·lar·ized, so·lar·iz·ing, so·lar·iz·es v.tr. To affect by exposing to the sun's rays. v.intr. To be overexposed. Used of photographic film. solar·i·zation (-lr--zshn) n.

My definition:  Kill all the grass so I can plant food.

What you see here is me killing the grass.  It's a passive action on my part.  All I did was cut our two defective pool covers in half and spread them out.  Then I weighed them down.  Now I will wait for the sun to kill the grass and weeds and in the spring, I will take off the tarps and have nice brown grass and happy, warm dirt.

And it looks really nice in the meantime, all decorative and whatnot with those tarps. :)

To me, this seems like common sense.  But apparently it's quite a science:
http://www.weekendgardener.net/organic-weed-killer/solarization-100710.htm
http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf46163001.tip.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_4037_solarize-soil.html
http://www.gardenguides.com/834-soil-solarization-weed-control-garden-pest-tip.html
and on and on.

Really, that just gets WAY more complicated than it needs to be.   Bottom line: you wanna kill grass?  Put down plastic.  The end.

Oh, and add chickens.

And old tires.

Because why not?  It looks nicer that way.

Yep, I do know that the tarps don't cover the whole area.  I will have to deal with some live grass in the spring. 

Sigh. 

Ironically, as I was doing this yesterday, I realized that this garden is actually bigger than our house. 

Hmmmmmmm...................