-Patrick Metz- As summer starts to wind down and fall approaches, it is time to start thinking about the post-harvest environment of your garden. Best practice shows us that, dollar for dollar, planting a cover crop is the best thing you can do for your garden. Here are some of the benefits: prevents erosion, improves soil health, adds organic matter, attracts pollinators, promotes and feeds your soil biology, increases tilth, and suppresses weeds. What does this mean for you? Your garden … [Read more...] about What are Cover Crops? And Why Use Them?
Cover crop
It’s time to improve your soil’s health
Fall is a great time to think about improving your soil’s health. We have all kinds of great resources at our finger tips this time of the year including leaf mulch, moisture, aged compost (hopefully you’ve been working on this), and cover crops. This is the time of year when your trees and perennial shrubs put their energy into their root systems. They have just spent the last growing season using up many of the nutrients in the soil they are growing in. In the natural world, say an … [Read more...] about It’s time to improve your soil’s health
Cover Crop Spotlight | Vetch and Winter Rye
Cover Crop Spotlight Double Feature: Vetch and Winter Rye! For those of you in Zone 7 or 8 considering a late season cover crop, it's not too late to sow some slightly hardier seeds and establish a nice crop before our harder frosts in a couple months. Cover crops are commonly combined in order to provide synergistic results in the garden. A great example of this is the pairing of Vetch with Winter Rye. Vetch is a leguminous, vining forage that is used extensively as a green manure crop. As a … [Read more...] about Cover Crop Spotlight | Vetch and Winter Rye
What Heat?
August sits on the air like a bag of wet hot cement. Mid-day movement in the garden is impossible, and thoughts of ice baths are paradise compared to dirt digging. Still, if you're a growing addict fiending for a garden fix, there are plenty of things to do. Some of these entail indoor activity, while others suggest limited outdoor work. Just take precautions by working early or late in the day when the sun isn't as sinister. Cover crops planning While it's still a little early to throw cover … [Read more...] about What Heat?
