Another thing about black plastic, I have used it in my garden for 39 years, now that the weather has warmed, I find it warms the soil too much for some seeds to properly germinate. Green beans don't germinate well through it now, spinach germination is terrible, crops like okra, squash, tomatoes and cucumbers love the heat.
I am branching out this year and putting a 2' strip of landscape fabric down the rows to keep down the weeds but will still let the soil breathe and stay cooler. I will cover the big bare areas between rows with plastic.
The thing about plastic is the price is tied to oil prices, being an old guy, I pay the price so I don't have to do any weeding.
One good thing I found out about my plastic; I only planted half the garden the first few years after my wife died, I let the unplanted side grow up in crabgrass that I kept mowed. With this ground left bare, every winter I would have an invasion of flea beetles that would destroy my turnip patch in a few days. The larva come out of the soil, turn into tiny flying insects and go to work on my greens.
It took 3 or 4 days for the flea beetles to do this to my turnip greens. There is something about rough turnip leaves that they can get a grasp on, they have a harder time holding on to slick leaves like kale and collards but can do significant damage to these crops as well.
When I started covering up my whole garden with plastic again the heat killed all the flea beetle larva, no more pests in my greens.
