Kamra, first questions... where are you? And what type of soil do you have? What's growing in the space now? There are a number of ways to handle weeds, but even plastic won't kill some undesirable plants and roots. Beyond which, if you are in the cooler areas of the world, plastic could make them thrive lol.

Hi! Thanks for responding! I'm in mid-Michigan. I'm not sure what "type" of soil I have, but things seem to grow well in it. There is nothing in the space now, but 2 years ago we had tomatoes and peppers there.

YW. This is one of the less-watched forums. For a question like yours, you'll get more responses from the vegetable gardening forum. Go ahead and cross-post it there also, and I think you'll find a lot more input.

In the meantime... I probably should have asked, but I suppose you are hoping to plant right in the ground. A lot of people build raised beds, but unless your soil is deficient, your chosen spot has drainage issues, or you need the extra height for handicapped reasons, it's unnecessary. I garden using 4' wide beds of varying lengths right in the ground and do just fine.

Soil type can be determined by a soil test. Reach out to your local community (it's usually on the county level) for your local agricultural agent. In most states, a soil test is quite reasonable. Here it's $7 and well worth it! They will tell you how to take the sample, where to send it, what type of soil you have, the pH, the nutrient profile, and what to amend with for your planned use.

In general, if you take a handful of moist soil, squeeze it in your hand, then poke it with your finger, a good soil will break apart, but not fall apart. If it doesn't break up - generally speaking it has higher amounts of clay. If it falls apart, or won't come together at all - it has higher amounts of sand.

So, for weeds, and preparing the garden... there are a lot of different ways of handling them. I use organic mulches in my beds. It's a thick (4" - 8") layer of straw, leaves, grass clippings, hay, etc.. around all my plants during the growing season, and covering the bed during winter. I have no real weed problem. The thick mulch smothers just about everything. There are some tough weeds that poke through, but they don't concern me too much. If you know that you have some of the worst, you can spend extra effort in making sure you get every trace of root, but that's not always easy.

To prepare my beds the first time. I didn't do anything special, I just got in there and turned the ground. I removed all the weeds I saw that I knew would be a problem, but that comes with experience, and I still didn't get them all. If I see a weed poke through my mulch, I just try to get as much of the top, and the root out as possible, and put an few extra handfuls of mulch on top. The mulch forces it to use up all it's stored energy and after a few attempts to reach the sun, and subsequent pulling by me, it usually dies out.

The plastic idea that you wrote about probably won't work in your climate. It's called solarization and it needs very hot sun to work. First, you might be too far north to get the direct sun necessary, and it has to be done in the hottest part of summer. So, for a garden this year, you would have to have done it last summer. You could consider trying it if you expand your garden, but you could also just pile a bunch of stuff on an area to smother it back some. A compost pile, whole leaves, or a lot of grass clippings is a good choice for putting on top of a future bed.

That said, a lot of people simply put down cardboard/paper as a weed block. You can either lay down cardboard and build a bed over top... which I don't prefer because of the expense and effort to bring in soil/medium/compost etc... Or, you can till/turn the soil, lay down thick layers of paper or a layer of cardboard, cut holes and plant through the cardboard. You could also plant, then put the paper/cardboard around your plants as they sprout. I think these are effective methods. I don't, nor have ever tried them, but those who do swear by it.

If you think the area is fairly fertile, and has decent soil, you may not have to add much of anything. The soil test is the best way to know for sure, but honestly, most garden soils are at their best through mimicking nature. Adding generous amounts organic matter and compost is often the best way to build a healthy soil. If you have access to clean, uncontaminated, composted manure from rabbits, chickens, or farm animals, that can be good, but you have to make sure it's not contaminated. If the hay the animals were fed had herbicide on it, that can make your garden pretty much unusable. There are simple tests you can do right at home, and the best way to get good advice for your soil (aside from the test) is to post specific questions in the Soil, Compost and Mulch forum.

I hope that gives you an overview and at least starts your thinking toward your options, and gets you started. Don't hesitate to ask these same (and more) questions in those other forums. They are watched more often and are very active. We all do things differently depending on our preferences, needs, conditions, and ability, so the more input you get, the better you can find what is going to work for you.

Kamra, rgreen has given you a great answer!

I'm just going to emphasize the importance of planting directly into the natural, native soil, if at all possible. Simple is best!

Thank you both so much! I am going to have my soil tested as soon as possible. I'm not far from MSU, where they do the testing. I will also get some mulch to help with the weeds. Thanks, again! I'm glad I found a helpful forum with helpful people! :)