Cover Crops Build Super Soil In Your GardenCover crops, also called green manure, are planted to protect and improve the soil. Good farmers have used them for hundreds of years. But you can plant them on a small scale in your garden and reap the same benefits. Getting The Greatest Benefit From Cover CroppingWinter Soil Building - Even if you are a year around gardener, much of your garden area probably is barren during the winter months – what a waste – and nature abhors a waste. If you don’t grow something nature will grow weeds.Winter green manure will provide organic weed control and also grow valuable organic matter that can be turned under in the spring to improve the soil. The organic matter produced is twice what you can see. There is at least as much root mass as top growth. Farmers often allow cattle to forage their cover crops. Don’t do that in your garden; avoid soil compaction. But, if you keep poultry you should let them forage your winter green covers. The poultry will convert your crop to manure (left in place) while keeping the insect population in check. Having areas in year around growth also provides safe harbor for beneficial insects, so they are available in the garden to keep up with the bad bugs. In Northern areas with hard freezes winter rye grass or hairy vetch are your best choices. Both are very hardy, and the vetch is a legume so it will fix nitrogen, an added benefit. Further South your choices increase. Early Spring Legumes - During the early spring, if you didn’t plant a winter crop, there is time to plant an early crop of fava beans or garden peas. They both can be planted as soon as the soil can be worked. You’ll get a vegetable crop you can eat, green manure to turn under and these legumes will fix nitrogen to feed later crops. Summer Weed Control - During the summer and early fall you can plant buckwheat in the unused areas of the garden between crops. Buckwheat can be turned under in as little as six weeks. It is an annual that will frost kill with the first hard frost, and then can be turned under in the spring. During the winter its root will hold the soil and block weed development. Living Mulch Rotation - If you have a large garden, plant the whole thing in grass. Turn under four-foot strips for your garden leaving four-foot grass isles for work from. At seasons end, re-seed the garden strips. In the spring, turn under the previous year’s isles for gardening. This rotation will continually reinvigorate your soil. One of the greatest benefits of cover cropping is that it prevents valuable nutrients from leaching down below your garden’s root zone. Water continually moves these nutrients deeper into your soil. Green manure crops take up those nutrients before they can seep beneath the root zone. Farmers call it a catch crop. Digging in the green manure then puts those nutrients right back into the root zone for the vegetables that follow. Gardener’s Favorite Green ManuresLegumes
Grains & Grasses
For over-wintering, sow seed at least 3 to 4 weeks before the first hard frost. In my garden (Pacific Northwest) I usually have to plants no later than between October 15th and November 1st. Winter rye can be sown up to the first hard frost. Do not let your cover crops go to seed. Turn them under as they begin to reach the flower stage, or mow them. You’ll need a rotary tiller to turn it under if you have a large garden. I prefer to spade it in, mostly because I can’t find a small enough tiller for an 11½-inch garden gnome to operate. Happy gardening, Geefrank
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