What is a good winter cover crop for a garden?
Image by Chiot’s Run
I planted winter rye and hairy vetch in my front garden area in the front yard. It’s quite lovely. I’ve only ever grown crimson clover for a cover crop so I’m quite interested to see how this does.
Question by GEM: What is a good winter cover crop for a garden?
Other than turnips.
Peace.
Add your own answer in the comments!
3 Responses to What is a good winter cover crop for a garden?
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annual rye grass will cover nicely.
Julie
September 30, 2011 at 4:31 am
cereal rye, oats and winter wheat
http://www.wi.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/solutions/covercrop.html
Here’s a resource of cover crop sites:
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/chatham/ag/SustAg/covcroplinks.html
The first site lists cover crops for Organic farms & the weeds they suppress. These cover crops are: Hairy Vetch, Crimson Clover, Cereal Rye, Wheat, Velvetbean, & Sorghum Sudangrass.
http://www.cefs.ncsu.edu/PDFs/Organic%20Production%20-%20Cover%20Crops.pdf
A good winter cover crop would be the one that eliminates the weeds that are giving you the most problems now.
Good luck! Peace to you, too 🙂
ANGEL(\o/)
September 30, 2011 at 4:40 am
I use all of the suggestions in the previous answers as well as vetch, with the goal being to add the most organic matter possible as well as protecting the garden from erosion. The down side being that in a wet spring it is difficult to till in in time for planting. Peace right back at ya!
Wordsmith
September 30, 2011 at 5:23 am