A couple of years ago, in the height on my growing two tons of produce, I depleted my soil to the point of trouble. It was a really good lesson, actually, on the importance of not taking, taking, taking from the soil. Since then, I really try to pay attention to the health of my dirt.
I started crop rotation and planting cover crops to make sure that I give back to the soil whatever my previous crop might have depleted. Of course, now that we are in the new house, I haven’t really had a chance to suck the dirt dry, so there’s no way of knowing if it is working, but hopefully, this time I can keep up an ounce of prevention instead.
Cover crops are basically crops that you plant with zero intention of harvesting. You plant them solely to let them enhance your soil. If you have a big enough space, you can do it during the height of the growing season and just not use that area for anything else–but for most of us, without the luxury of giving one of our garden boxes a rest during the peak growing season, fall is the time to lay down a cover crop.
Not only do cover crops enhance the soil {usually by fixing nitrogen to it}, but they also help squelch out weeds and manage pests and disease. The beauty of cover crops is that you have to do very little other than plant and provide occasional water until winter sets it.
Once the cold weather really sets in, the cover crops will stop growing significantly, but they will remain there, slowly releasing valuable nutrients to the soil–and acting like a winter blanket. In really cold areas, you might only be able to grow cover crops like rye and wheat. In my area, I have tried Fava beans with quite a bit of success. Peas and oats are also great cover crops.
To start a cover crop, you’ll want to follow the basic instructions on the seed packets. Water in the seeds with a light mist pretty regularly until you see the green start to poke through the dirt.
If you have covered a large area with a cover crop, mow them down during the active growing season. For all cover crops, let them die back in early spring {or even very late fall}. In the spring, several weeks before planting season, chop them up and/or till them into the soil. Some crops need to be tilled in or pulled out at least 3 weeks prior to planting a new crop, because they actually prohibit germination of other crops.
For smaller crops, you can just pull it out like a weed. It kind of feels counter-intuitive to let the cover crop die back and then pull it out, but it really is the best thing for the soil. Plus, if you pull it out, you can always toss it into the compost bin–and you won’t have to wait as long to plant your next crop.
Do you plant cover crops? What do you plant?
~Mavis
Amazon sells this 5lb Bag of Fall Cover Crop Seed Mix
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Trish Slussar says
Mavis, I’ve been reading your blog for a while now and collecting all the info that I can for the day that I am able to buy some land of our own. In the meantime, I manage a community garden for our city and I’m wondering how we could replenish the soil with a cover crop there. The situation is this: row gardening with irrigation water. We assign plots in the spring and require gardeners to clear their plots by early October usually. Although many times we let them power through until just before the first snowfall in mid to late October at which time the city plows the field for us. Do you see a way to fit a cover crop in that schedule? Thanks for any input you can give.
Diane says
Mavis, I sow crimson clover every fall that I can manage it. It does well here in Portland. I always leave one patch to bloom, since a) it’s GORGEOUS and smells like clover honey when you brush against it, and b) the bees LOVE it. I’ve found I can sow it as late as the end of September or beginning of October, if it doesn’t start raining early, and still get decent results (which is great, since my tomatoes usually aren’t done until then). Thanks for reminding me that it’s time to get some seed!