Warming the soil

[muckdiva]

I want to warm the soil a bit on my raised beds before planting anything out. I am a bit low on fleece at the moment (blown away in the high winds) , but I have lots of clear silage wrap which seems to be made up of several layers of clingfilmy type plastic. I hate the idea of this going into landfill and have been racking my brain for ways to recycle it. Do other grapes think it would do for putting over the soil, or is black better for absorbing heat...?

I used it for putting over weedy areas last year and it did a fine job of supressing them, though it's not pretty to look at.

[SueA]

Hi Muckdiva, I would think it should be fine as any kind of covering is going to raise the temperature a couple of degrees. Maybe if you put it over some bent wires to make a kind of cloche that would create a kind of warm air pocket?

[john.tate]

Hello Muckdiva, if you do not have any heavy black plastic black wast bags will do nicesly with your clear plastic on top, black keeps light out so no groth from weeds, two lenghts of timber along two sides with a few bricks will hold it all in place. best wishes. J.Tate