the cover crop most ppl forget about
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It's that weird time of year where half my garden still says summer! and the other half is fully in fall mode. Tomatoes and cucumbers are still hanging on despite a couple of recent frosts, while peas and lettuce are loving the cooler weather. I'm guessing I have two or three more weeks before I need to pull all my warm-weather crops out, and once that happens, cover crops will be going in to replace them. It's rare that any bed in my garden stays empty for more than a few weeks, even in winter. Bare soil loses nutrients and suffers from structural damage during freeze-thaw cycles. You can protect bare soil with mulch, cardboard, or tarps, but by far the best option is plant life. Soil that's actively growing plants keeps the food web below healthy and resilient, which is why weeds will move in if there's no cover crop. One of my favorites that most people forget about is bell beans. These legume crops (essentially small-seeded fava beans) provide a blanket that not only suppresses weeds and protects against erosion and compaction, but also fixes nitrogen. (A science-y way of saying the plants add a lot more nitrogen to the soil than they use up. It's like growing your own fertilizer!) They're pretty hardy (surviving temps down to 15°F) and super easy to grow, which is why I recommend them for most climates. If you're on the lower end of their temperature range, you can usually add straw mulch or frost cloth to get them through winter. Think of where you'll have bare soil once you cut down the last of your summer crops, and sow your bell bean cover crop between now and mid-October.
Seasonal tipsP.S. Don't leave your soil bare over winter. Grow a bell bean cover crop to protect the soil and build fertility (and get some bonus salad greens to boot). |
Garden Betty
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