I know you are in a warmer zone than mine. From what I have read you should solarize in the summer during the hottest month. I think it would kill anything in the ground.

I agree with sack. Everything will probably be cooked. Why don't you dig up the plants you want to keep? But why solarize anyway? Unless you have nematodes. If you don't and it's because of weeds, personally I would pull the weeds.

The weeds I have are very quick to flower and reseed. I really have to catch them when they just sprout, but with the full mat of herbs that isn't possible. I am wanting a nice clean slate and I would rather not use chemical means considering what is being planted. Solarizing supposedly can kill most seeds in the top two or three inches of soil. Since many of my herbs don't like 'wet feet', I don't mulch heavily around them.

We solarize our plot with clear plastic in the middle of the summer when it's too hot to grow anything that we are interested in growing. Our main focus is the fall and winter greens and sugar snap peas anyway. We don't put tomatoes, peppers or eggplants in the ground, only in containers. Also since we have wet clay soil I've stopped growing herbs in the ground, too. Since many of them are Mediterranean type plants they are all in big pots with well-draining soil. Except for the original Rosemary plants and it surprises me that they are still alive. Yes the solarizing kills the nematodes, pathogens and weeds, but we still wind up with them coming back in, it's a battle regardless.

I have very sandy soil, so if I allow for adequate (plenty) of air circulation, I can get away with growing a few herbs in ground. Like I mentioned, the thyme and oregano have loved it. The bed is on the east side of my house and the base of the wall, so they don't get directly hit by most of our summer rains. They seem to enjoy those conditions. Some will slow down during the height of summer, but they survive and rebound as autumn approaches.

On the topic of tomatoes, I am trying something this fall that I had read about and then saw on a show. I grew Tagetes marigolds in a bed through the summer and then dug them into the soil before planting my tomatoes. Supposedly root-knot nematodes do not like the chemicals released by the roots and decaying foliage of Tagetes and will avoid the area. So over this fall and the next couple years I am going to try cycling marigolds and tomatoes to see if the health of the tomatoes improves.

Can you cut back & transplant the herbs into pots? Then you could replant them after you're done solarizing....?

Michael, if you solarize the soil this time of the year you will lose the best time to grow herbs. When I am going to start a new bed I take out everything from the bed and start fresh, add amendments to the soil and either put seeds or transplants. You can replant any herbs that look good.

Hi Rita! long time no see you, I missed your posts, please don't be a stranger.:)

Silvia

Thanks, Silvia. I've been lurking all along but when they changed over to Houz, I mistakenly thought I'd have to get a Facebook account to post. (I don't do facebook, twitter, etc.) And we've been very busy most of the year with my father-in-law's serious illness and his passing. We are still working on finalizing the estate and probably won't be done for a long time. But it's slowed to an easier pace and I finally took a closer look at how to access this thing. Also this past year was very wet here and with that, all the stress with the estate thing, and a couple of times my back was out, this gardening year was a complete failure all around. I am just now getting back out and trying to have a cool weather veggie plot as we usually do. There's just a lot of catching up to do around here.

Rita, I am so sorry about your recent problems, I wish you the best to solve everything and have the much needed peace. It is good to return to the garden at least for a distraction of our daily life and just like you I am not a fan of facebook either.:)

Silvia