Garden all Purpose Cover Crops

Green manures (also called cover crops) will improve soil quality A green manure crop is plowed under right in place, adding organic matter high in nitrogen to the soil. In decomposing, it produces humic acid, which helps release locked-up minerals, so you need to add less fertilizer in other forms. A green manure crop also prevents erosion and crowds out weeds. Its root system helps loosen subsoil and bring up minerals. It improves soil structure in the same way that compost does, without the hauling — a boon to the lazy gardener.

Legumes such as peas and beans make a valuable addition to the soil, because they ha^veth^e a^bility to “fix” nitrogen: take it from the air and bind it to their roots. After the cropplants under, right then and there, where they will quickly decompose — green manuring in its simplest form. has been harvested, merely use a spade or tiller to turn the

Pull a bean plant and examine its root system. You can see the little nodules where the nitrogen-fixing bacteria hang out.

Cover crops can be a solution for a gardener who wants to be lazier but can’t bear to cut down on the size of the garden. Each year, plant half the space in a green manure and the other half in vegetables. The next season, switch places. You’ll have half the work, eliminate many weeds, and be lazily improving your soil at the same time.

Other “double-duty” crops you can harvest first, then turn under as green manure, are soy beans (and, in the South, cowpeas) and kale. Plant kale six weeks before first frost in the North or as a winter crop in the South.

Plant a cover crop of clover or another legume between rows of corn. Eliminate the need to weed and have soil replenishment for this heavy feeder ready and waiting.

My neighbor plants winter rye in his garden, section by section, as the season’s last crops are harvested. A “piecework” approach keeps it from becoming a major project. Here in the North, all the winter ryewinter. must be sown by October 15, when the growing season slows down, or it won’t have a chance to become established before

In spring, he spreads manure on top of the rye (optional) and plows both under. If desired, you can cut or disk the rye first.

Annual ryegrass dies out during the winter, so it is easier to turn under in spring than crops that survive.

Always plow under a green manure before it goes to seed. You don’t want to have your soil improver become a weed in the vegetable crop that follows it.

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