#cover crops

[summerswages]

buckwheat two ways . . .

[growingwildgardens]

Who needs to trim ground cover when your dogs can just roll around in it when its time?

Took the opportunity to trim the mostly ready seed pods off to dry.

Gonna let the rest grow a bit more and then take them down and do the same - dried for seeds, and used for nitrogen rich additions to compost.

Since these were literally all winter volunteers from laying my seeds here last year, letting them grow has been a really low effort way to get a ton of seeds, very early flowers for pollinators, and greens for the compost pile

[the-habitat-ring]

I’ve been procrastinating on cutting back my winter pea cover crop because they’re flowering now and are just so prettyyyyyy

I planted them last fall (a bit late) and half of them overwintered surprisingly well. They’re mostly interplanted with garlic which seems to have worked well as a pairing, although now they’re getting a bit overexuberant and I need to pull the soft neck garlic pretty soon

(Also eating the baby pods is yummy)

[match-your-steps]

it is so wild to me that I just know a whole bunch of stuff about agriculture that my peers don't know just because I happened to go to school from preschool up through high school graduation in the rural midwest. like my freshman year of college I had to take an american history class and the TA told us the dust bowl was caused by a drought (one of the many reasons, but the drought wouldn't have mattered if they'd been employing good agricultural practices). and one of the reasons people think might have contributed to the collapse of the maya society is their apparent use of slash-and-burn techniques in agriculture, which only work for a few years before the soil is totally depleted of nutrients. like they don't just KNOW this stuff. you're telling me they didn't just teach you these things in school? do you even know what a cover crop is? please tell me you know what a cover crop is

[redwinevinegar47]

As an atheist who has internalized a lot of Puritanism, I feel like my moral worth is indicated by the worms and toads I find in the garden.

[yopey]

Buckwheat field in North Carolina.

[toadstoolgardens]

Green Manuring

Green manuring is the process of growing a crop and adding it to the soil by digging/plowing in or cutting/pulling the crop and dropping it on top. Over time the green matter will rot and worms will drag it into the soil. This improves the quality if your soil by rotting into humus, preventing soil erosion, and retaining nitrogen instead of losing it to the air like bare soil would.

Using Weeds: Annual weeds can be a green manure crop. Many annual weeds pop up after your crops have been harvested. Let them grow and chop them tight to the ground before they seed. All green manure crops should be cut or pulled at the flowering stage or earlier, when they're young and full of protein. This way they'll have enough nitrogen in them to provide for their own rotting down.

Planting Green Manure: Green manure crops can be divided into winter and summer crops, and legumes & non-legumes. Legumes make the best green manure crops because they have bacteria at their roots that take nitrogen from the air, which is added to the soil when they rot.

Grazing Rye: A wonderful winter green manuring crop. Plant it after your harvest, rake the seed in, let it grow all winter, and then dig it in during spring.

Comfrey: A great summer green manuring crop. Plant root cuttings 2 feet apart on weed-free land in the spring and let it grow. Comfrey's deep roots will give heavy yields of nitrogen rich material, phosphate, and other minerals to the soil.

Other great green manuring crops: beans & peas, clovers, lupins, vetch, alfalfa, soybeans, sunflowers, oats, buckwheat.

Seymour, John. The New Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency. DK Publishing, 2019.

[mauricesmall]

Top Tips for Organic Gardening/Farming in September from Maurice Small

Seasons change and helping our soils remain flexible year round is key.

We grow our food in healthy soil all year and September is a key month to renew and enhance our soil by cover cropping.

Cover crops renew our soils by adding nutrients to the top 3 inches and sometimes 18+ inches beneath the surface.

Cover crops to add life and protect soil over the winter include grains such as hairy vetch or winter peas.

The Brassicas family of plants such as radish, mustards and turnips are also well loved by the soil and us as the leaves and roots are edible. If you time it right and you grow in the right region, buckwheat or sesame are viable edible cover crops as well.

Clover is my favorite cover crop because it suppresses weeds year round, provides me with another edible option, improves soil health, attract pollinators as well as beneficial insects, stabilizes my soil and prevents soil erosion.