I usually prefer the Roundup method. It's much quicker, more environmentally friendly (than buying huge sheets of plastic), and soooo much easier.

Solarization does have it's place (where certain soil-borne pathogens are present, for instance), but, for me, it's not my first choice for a new garden spot. Don't get me wrong; I'm not saying it's a bad idea. I'm just saying that there are other options.

But isn't Roundup a chemical?

Nana26 - thanks for saying that. And roundup does not kill the weed seeds. When you turn the soil over - oh, oh, here come the weeds growing from those little weed seeds!!

And as far as environmentally friendly goes - I use the same plastic that I used for solarizing for lots of other things too (drop cloth, etc) Just hose it off after using on the garden and hang it up to dry. There ya go - it keeps forever.

Linda In NC

Nana,

Chemicals are not bad just because they are chemicals! Even most food contains lots of chemicals. You use lots of different chemicals every day! Roundup is a very safe chemical compared to almost any other chemical you would be likely to use in your garden or landscape. When it hits soil or even dirty water, it quickly degrades into an environmentally safe state. In fact, there is usually an increase in microbes in soils shortly after being treated with glyphosate. Oh, that reminds me, solarization kills out a lot of the microbes in the soil, and that's one of its disadvantages. Plants need microbes to live and so the soil is less productive until the good microbes are reestablished.

Oh, and as for weed seeds, they are dispersed by wind, birds, and other means, so they come back in short order anyway.