Cover Crops

Just because the growing season is coming to an end doesn't mean your garden is off duty! Many farmers and gardeners plant cover crops to protect and improve their soil. Cover crops are seeds that we plant, not to harvest or eat the fruits, but to work back into the soil. This process of letting plant matter decompose on the soil is sometimes called Green Manure. Although it might seem like a waste of time or money to plant something you’re not going to eat, cover crops are a relatively cheap way to let your soil rest and recharge. Just like we put tobacco down before we harvest, we must also give to the Earth in order to receive her gifts.

Garden soil should be covered as often as possible; planting a cover crop will protect your soil and allow your garden to be more successful the next year. A cover crop is a plant that is sowed in a garden or farm outside of the main growing season or during alternating years. If you have a cover crop, it is harder for weeds to take over.

Cover crops help your garden in a handful of ways.

• Growing plants for produce tends to take nutrients from the soil without replacing them, causing a need for fertilizers.

• Especially good at capturing nutrients or even making their own, like the plants that can pull nitrogen from the atmosphere.

• When the plant is cut or killed by cold temperatures, these nutrients are left in the soil allowing your vegetables to have a nutrient rich place to grow during the next season.

• Protect the soil from erosion. When the soil is left uncovered, wind and rain tend to blow and wash the soil away. When plants are constantly growing, there are always roots in the ground to hold the soil in place, so your soil can remain strong year to year.

• Prevents weeds from growing in your garden. Plants will naturally fill in any open space in the soil, so if there is a cover crop planted, there will be less room for weeds to grow.

• Some cover crops can also be used as mulch once they are cut or crimped, suppressing weed growth during the growing season (Visit our mulch blog to learn about the benefits of mulch.)

There are several types of cover crops. Here are some common examples:

• Clover

• Rye

• Oats

• Barley

• Peas

For Project Grow participants, we recommend using oats as a cover crop. This quick growing grass will cover your garden before the harsh winter hits. It is affordable, tolerates cold temperatures, and when it's cut, the grass will act as mulch to suppress weed growth in your garden. You can purchase oats on many seed websites, such as Johnny Seeds. A pound of organic oat seed for cover crop costs just $6.40. Seeds can simply be thrown out into a raked garden post-harvest; you don’t have to bend down and plant the seeds one by one.

There are a few tips you need when growing a cover crop in your home garden.

1. Plant between August and September: whenever your garden is finished producing for the season.

2. The plant needs at least 6 to 10 weeks to grow before intense frost. However, if the plant grows too much before winter, it could begin to produce seed, which you don’t want. The plant will take nutrients from the soil in order to grow flowers or seeds. If the plant is beginning to seed before winter, cut all of the grass at the base to kill the plant.

3. Leave the plant remains on the ground to break down and add nutrients back into the soil.