With Garden Tiller Tool Planting a Green Manure Crop takes only minutes

1. Prepare a good seedbed. If the area has plant residues, spade them into the soil or pull them and pile them on a compost pile. Some crops with heavy stalks and stems, such as corn, broccoli, and cauliflower, are best pulled out and worked into your compost pile. Some of the greens and vine crops are easier to dig in. Loosen the soil to a depth of 6 to 8 inches. Give the area a final raking. As you do this, step backwards so that you can rake over your footprints.
2. A little fertilizer will help the green manure crop get off to a quick start. About 2 pounds of a commercial fertilizer such as 5-10-10 or 10-10-10 per 100 square feet should suffice. Mix it into the soil with a rake. Do the work so you don’t leave footprints.
3. Broadcast the seed evenly over the area. You can walk around a small plot and scatter the seed without stepping on the soil.
4. A light raking will mix most of the seed into the soil at the proper depth. A couple of friends who live on the other side of town have an unusual way to cover seed. They lay a long chain across the garden. They each take an end of the chain and walk along the edge of the seeded area. The chain tumbles through the soil and spills a little soil over the seeds. It works well and they don’t put any footprints in the soil.

Planting a Green Manure Crop

The first step is to prepare a deep, well- groomed seedbed. Many green manure seeds are small, so a fine, level seedbed will help produce an even stand of plants. Tilling down deep will help the crop’s roots to dig in quickly. If you are working an old crop into the ground first, make an extra pass or two to get the plant residues chopped up small and mixed throughout the soil. If you have time, till the old crop and come back in a few days and till again. However you do it, till the area one last time on planting day. This helps your crop get ahead of any weeds.

Mix a little fertilizer into the soil before planting the seeds. Use just enough to get the green manure crop off to a good start. Spread about 2 pounds of a balanced fertilizer like 5-10-10 for each 100 square feet of crop area. Mix it into the soil 2 or 3 inches deep.

It takes only a few minutes to broadcast green manure seeds over the seedbed. Carry the seeds in a bag. Get a handful of seed and with wide, “Ferris wheel” swings of your arm, scatter the seed evenly. Buckwheat and annual ryegrass seeds should land an inch or two apart (though some will wind up a little closer). Peas and beans should land about 2 to 4 inches apart.

There’s a simple way to cover the seeds with my tiller. I zip across the seedbed in high gear with the tines going into the soil only an inch or two. I walk on the side of the tiller where I have not yet covered the seeds so there are no spots of heavy compaction when I get through.

The tines bury some seeds a little too deeply, and others are too close to the surface or even right on top. That’s okay. The seeding rate takes this into account. There will be plenty of seeds at the right depth to germinate quickly and to give you a good stand of plants.

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)
With Garden Tiller Tool Planting a Green Manure Crop takes only minutes

• Green Garden Seeding and Sowing, How to Do It
• Sheet Composting
• Vegetable Garden Planting Vine Crops (Soil, Sowing, Fertilizer, Watering and harvest)
• Getting Seeds and Plants to Grow in hot, dry Weather
• Plant Deeply to Grow Fuller Hills, a Second Billing, or Plant Potatoes under Mulch?
• Tools for Creating Deadwood
• Green Fingers for Colorful Small Garden Planner (Garden Plants and Containers)
• Garden all Purpose Cover Crops
• Great Compost for a full Season of Sweet Corn
• Sun and Shade