Let’s Talk Cover Crops

If you don’t plant a fall garden, you’re missing out on (arguably) this area’s best growing season. Collards, kale, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, spinach and a ton of other nutritious veggies grow best during the fall. And now is the time to plant many of those varieties.

But I know not everyone grows a fall garden. That doesn’t mean you should neglect your garden until the spring time. Instead, you should think about growing a cover crop.

Nature abhors barren soil. You will almost never find bare soil in nature (except places like the Sahara desert or Antarctica). But even in most deserts, you will find plants growing in the soil.

Weeds and grass will probably invade your garden space If you leave it alone all fall and winter. If you’re not growing a fall garden, you should consider planting a cover crop. It will take up the space so weeds don’t invade. Before the spring, you can shred the cover crop and till it into the soil to add organic matter. Some cover crops in the legume family can also benefit the soil by supplying nitrogen. Let’s take a look at some cover crop options.

Do you have a big garden? And do you raise livestock that you might want to graze on your cover crop? If that’s the case, you might want to plant something like winter wheat, oats or ryegrass. You can allow your cattle, sheep or goats to graze it for a few hours every few days. They’ll drop manure that you can then incorporate into the soil later on.

If it’s a small garden, you might want to plant green peas as a cover crop. As a legume, they’ll put nitrogen in the ground. Plus, you’ll get a harvest of delicious peas to eat. If you plant some peas now, you’ll probably get a harvest before the first frost. When the peas are done producing, don’t pull them up. Snip the plants off at the ground so the root nodules stay in the soil where they can decompose and release their nitrogen.

Buckwheat is an excellent cover crop that I’ve grown several times. It’s fast to maturity, only 30-60 days. You will want to chop and till it as soon it starts to flower. It loses a lot of mass after it goes to seed. But you can always harvest the seed, mill it, and make buckwheat pancakes! Don’t let livestock graze on buckwheat, though. It can be poisonous to them. It’s more of a spring/summer cover crop, but you can definitely get a good stand of buckwheat if you plant now. It will freeze, though. Hairy vetch is probably the best all-around winter cover crop for gardens in our area. Hairy vetch is a legume that’s more winter-hardy than garden peas, but it doesn’t produce anything you can eat. It will grow throughout the winter. If you have chickens, they’ll love grazing on vetch. In the spring, you’ll want to chop it and let the roots decompose in the ground, just as you would with peas or any other legume grown as a cover crop. You can turn the tops into compost or mow and till into the ground. Do any of you readers plant other cover crops? I’d love to hear from you.You can reach me by email at andy@fayettecountyrecord. com.