Days and nights are cold, and for 2 weeks I have had snows cooling my gardening enthusiasm. However, signs of spring are everywhere with perennials beginning to grow and spring bulbs adding cheer to the garden with their faithful blooms. The vegetable garden calls to me. I just cannot yet dig in the turkey manure compost until we have at least a week with no rain or snow. And since clay soil is slow to warm in the spring, even when I have my soil in perfect tilth, the soil temperature may not be high enough to germinate seeds.
Soil solarization is the answer.
Often used for weed control, solarization also works to warm the soil, hastening germination of vegetable seeds and growth of young seedlings planted when the plastic is removed. Cover the bed with clear 3 to 4 mil plastic, sealing the outer edges with soil. Use a high quality plastic so that it will not deteriorate. Just a week of warm spring sun penetrating through the plastic will warm the soil several degrees and may even kill a few weeds. Two to three weeks will germinate all the weeds and kill them, leaving a vegetable garden bed ready for planting.