On Saturday Jose had enough guys in the field to carefully lay this mulch in the field in spite of the breezy weather. We needed a day with no wind, but they have been hard to find lately. Many organic farmers use thin plastic films over the beds to keep the weeds under control. Unfortunately, there is no recycling available for this agricultural plastic in our area so it ends up at the landfill. I have never been very comfortable with this practice, so a few years ago we invested in a plastic called lumen for our strawberry beds. We use the same plastic for the floors in our greenhouse, and so far it has lasted twelve years. It worked wonders on the strawberries, not only keeping the weeds down, but also the crop was much improved. Last year we invested more and used it on the beds for basil, eggplant, and peppers, and all of these crops showed improvements. One of the biggest problems we have is the amount of work we have to do in June. So many crops demand our time that invariably something gets passed by. Using this mulch reduces the need to hoe at this critical time when there are not enough hours in the days to get everything done. At the end of the season, we roll up this mulch and put it away in the greenhouse to use for the next crop. This year we have bought enough for our tomatoes. I use the word invest as it is expensive costing over $3,000 per acre. We believe it is a valuable investment in the time saved and the increase in quality and yield over the long life of the material.