Cover crops, often called green manure, are a great idea; they feed the soil, suppress weeds and prevent run off. The problem with cover crops is they need to be planted while it is warm enough for the seed to germinate and that can mean giving up growing space while your vegetables are still producing. One compromise is to plant it under your cool weather vegetables, but at some point, you are going to need pull the vegetables, to turn the cover crop under. It's worth it though. Peg Tillery, of WSU Kitsap Extension, fills us in on her personal cover crop preferences for her Northwest garden and Michael Bomford, from Organic Kentucky, goes into even more detail about the choices and uses of cover crop grains and legumes.
Another option, especially for those of us who procrastinate until frost arrives, is to dormant seed a cover crop. Genevieve Slocum with Dave Wilson, at the Rodale Institute, say it's (Almost) never too late to plant hairy vetch. If you can get the seed down before the soil freezes, you could have a lovely cover crop ready to turn under for the spring season.
Comments
I tried green manure last year for the first time, when I put in winter rye seed. It was very difficult turning the soil over and getting all of the root clumps out in the Spring till I put the chickens to work in the beds. They scratched up an ate all of the grass, then I only needed to compost the roots which no longer had soil in them. If I didn’t have the chickens, it would have been very difficult to get it all out of the raised beds. If I beds where I could use a roto tiller, that would work better than trying to do it by hand with a small spade.
You’ve got to love chickens. Someone should rent them out for a week or two, to gardeners who aren’t allowed to keep them.
Good point about it not being the easiest thing to turn over. I’ve only used clover and just loosely chopped it in, so it was loose enough to replant in. Gardening takes a strong back.
I did the same except for tilling in. A post-hole digger was used to cut thru the sod and tomatoes were planted. The rye grass was then a weed-free mulch while the tomatoes feasted on the decaying rye root system. It was amazing to see the t’s take off.