Last year we planted 9 tomato plants in our backyard. The season before we had invested quite a lot (or so we thought) in raised beds. For each of our 9 plants we had a tomato cage and a square foot reserved in our bed. I thought that was a lot of tomatoes. This year we are growing 1/8 of an acre of tomato plants–that equates to something around 800 plants. Obviously tomato cages and raised beds are not going to work on that scale.

Thanks to our training program we have learned about plastic mulch. Plastic mulch is just one of the many ways that modern organic farming works with nature to control nature–if that makes any sense. It works in this way. You buy a role of plastic (agricultural approved). Then start at one end of the row, dig a trench, then put the plastic in and cover it up. Now start unrolling the plastic and shovel dirt onto the edges, all the way down the row. At the end cut the plastic, dig another trench and bury it.

Now you have a sleek looking row of plastic. Aside from aesthetics this plastic serves a purpose. It warms up the soil, keeps weeds out and water in and protects the plants from dirt. As odd as it sounds tomatoes are prone to soil borne diseases such as tomato blight. As it rains and the soil splashes up on the plants the blight can spread. Pretty quickly you can wipe out a whole tomato crop. Who knew? You just don’t have to deal with this when you have 9 plants in raised beds filled with perfectly mixed (and hopefully blight free) soil.

When it comes time to plant you cut a hole in the plastic, dig a hole in the dirt and plant as normal. To complicate things a little you can put t-tape under the plastic. This is used to water your plants under the plastic since rain probably won’t do the trick anymore. The tape is around a 1 in width, flat with holes on one side. When connected to a hose at the end of the row it will provide nice steady water to your plants.

So I know this is really necessary if we hope to recoop any expenses from our tomato crop this year. But let me tell you–Ugh! After working on plastic mulch that will probably be all you can say. Last week we went out and spent 4 hours trying to figure out how to lay plastic. We were not prepared and didn’t have the right equipment, but we made a valiant attempt. It didn’t look pretty but at least we had a row done, 3 more to go. Knowing that this weekend we would have to finish the plastic and get a good start on planting we returned to the farm Thursday morning before work. We knew we would only have 2 hours but hoped to get another row done. When we arrived in our field we found the the wind had riped out Sunday’s work–ugh! We were able to get a row done but now we still have 3 to go. This time we had the right equipment and we are keeping our fingers crossed that it will still be in the field when we arrive. I was exhausted after 1 row, now we have to do 3 rows and plant in one weekend–ugh!