Cover Crops

Cover crops are an essential part of good soil health. There are so many different kinds of cover crops to use, and they all have different purposes. I like alfalfa and sun hemp the best, I don't know the scientific name for sun hemp, but I'm sure you can look it up on the Internet. An alfalfa cover crop is good for adding nitrogen to the soil and mining for minerals that are very deep. The alfalfa root can go as deep as 15 feet. The Sun hemp also is a nitrogen fixer, and it adds a tremendous amount of organic matter to the soil. Remember that the amount of matter you see above the ground is one third of the amount of matter that is below the ground. You can buy a commercial cover crop from groworganic.com, which is called “Good Soil Builder” which works very well. I usually just get my seeds at the local health food store. I get buckwheat, flacks, amaranth, barley, beans, and sometimes I buy the soup mix and plant that.

Buckwheat helps to release the potassium in the soil. There is a type of Marigold, which will kill nematodes. The daicon and horseradish can help to break up heavy clay soils. I like to add a bunch of seeds together and just trust in the chaos of nature. It's a lot of fun, and you get a beautiful field, which is healthy and ready for a new vegetable crop in a few months. Just broadcast the seeds evenly over the field, and then rake then in so that the birds don't eat them. When I buy seeds I try and buy seeds that are all about the same size. So that when I rake them in I only have to bury them about the same distance into the soil. It just makes it a little easier.

Another good thing about cover crops is that they are good bug attractors, you need a good balance of bugs. In order to have a healthy garden bugs are essential. Did you know that there is a tremendous amount of skeletal matter that is dropped into the soil from the dead bugs, which acts as a fertilizer. You should have about one quarter of your garden in cover crops at all times. This is one of the methods on the road to sustainability, which as we all know is very important today.




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And make hay while the sun shines




farmerMark...;)