Home Garden Cover Cops - Zone 4b

[Wind Gypsy]

The soil health rabbit hole for food plots got me thinking about our garden at home. Kind of sad i have been thinking more about the soil to feed my deer than the soil that feeds our family.. We live on a pretty steep hill without a flat spot for a garden so I built a bed by making a 3 sides of retaining wall out of RR ties and filling it with black dirt last summer. Don't know anything about the dirt other than it's what the local nursery delivered when i asked for a load of black dirt last summer.

We'll be harvesting stuff for probably another 5+ weeks out of it but I was curious what anyone else would do as far as planting a cover crop to be terminated (no herbicide) next May before planting for '23. Seems like we'd have to till it in if not using herbicide and my wife (the one who does the gardening) is worried that any cover crops would become additional weeds. So i'm curious about any other thoughts. Worth the time or should we just skip it and continue on with compost and using the organic matter from plants already in the garden?

We have chickens too so we could find a way to incorporate chicken litter into the mix.

 

[TenPoint]

I planted winter rye and clover as our garden cover crop. Good green manure and helps somewhat w/ weeds next spring. Tilling usually negates that eventually but at least it's not bare soil all winter.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

I planted winter rye and clover as our garden cover crop. Good green manure and helps somewhat w/ weeds next spring. Tilling usually negates that eventually but at least it's not bare soil all winter.

That is what I was thinking i might plant. Lord knows I have enough seed left over.

 

[Telemark]

I usually keep late season kale in my vegetable garden. It overwinters and gives me my first crop of the spring. Then I usually just clip it off and leave the roots in the soil.

This year I will be trying to cover all my beds with mache lettuce, purslane, and piquant mustard greens as edible cover crops.

 

[birdog]

I would be concerned with the chemicals used in the railroad ties seeping into the garden soil. I have heard railroad ties should be avoided for this purpose.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

I would be concerned with the chemicals used in the railroad ties seeping into the garden soil. I have heard railroad ties should be avoided for this purpose.

Good point. They aren't actual railroad ties but new treated wood, which may not be any better.. piss. Might need to look into putting separate beds inside there.

 

[chucker66]

I have an all grow bag garden. I mix my own soil using compost (neighbor has horses), vermiculite, and peat moss. I have about 100 bags going this year and just harvested my potatoes. I had 30 bags of them in Red, Golden and Purple. I re-mixed that soil and planted some beets, lettuce, radishes and a bunch of spinach for the fall. I also have a few bags of Minnesota Miget Melon, Pumpkins, Acorn and Butternut Squash, green beans, cucumbers cabbage and onions. Oh I almost forgot my tomatoes. I have 36 bags of different varieties including Amish Paste, Italian Heirloom, San Marzano, Big Boy, and a few cherry for my wife. I grow my tomatoes up a string which is attached to a horizontal 2x4 about 12 feet up. and then use these plastic clips to connect to the vine My Amish Paste are all about to the top right now. This is all in a 21'x21' garden. I'll post some pics if anyone is interested.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

I have an all grow bag garden. I mix my own soil using compost (neighbor has horses), vermiculite, and peat moss. I have about 100 bags going this year and just harvested my potatoes. I had 30 bags of them in Red, Golden and Purple. I re-mixed that soil and planted some beets, lettuce, radishes and a bunch of spinach for the fall. I also have a few bags of Minnesota Miget Melon, Pumpkins, Acorn and Butternut Squash, green beans, cucumbers cabbage and onions. Oh I almost forgot my tomatoes. I have 36 bags of different varieties including Amish Paste, Italian Heirloom, San Marzano, Big Boy, and a few cherry for my wife. I grow my tomatoes up a string which is attached to a horizontal 2x4 about 12 feet up. and then use these plastic clips to connect to the vine My Amish Paste are all about to the top right now. This is all in a 21'x21' garden. I'll post some pics if anyone is interested.

Please do post pics!

 

[Barndog56]

New treated wood is ok for garden beds as they don't use arsenic anymore. Besides, there is toxic metal in all of our soil. Just cuz it's there doesn't mean plants will absorb it.

I use oats after I clear a bed in summer or fall since the frost terminates them. And the dead roots protect the soil over winter. I broadcast crimson clover into my sweet corn beds at planting time. Any weeds that grow in my beds are pulled and used for mulch.

Picked my sweet corn bed this past weekend. It was a jungle of corn, clover, milkweed, weeds, and a random pumpkin that has sprawled everywhere. Most people think crops need a monoculture or they don't get enough nutrients or water. But that's really not true. All the plants in that bed are feeding different soil biology, which will in turn bring the corn whatever it requires.

Here is the result, picked two or 3 days past prime.


When my pepper bed gets killed by frost, I cut the plants off at soil level and lay them down in the bed to return the organic matter. The same is done for the corn stalks after picking.

 

[SD51555]

For a decent cover and ability to control, I'd do pea/barley for the fall, and flax/faba bean in the spring. Pea/barley should winter kill, and spread the flax/faba as soon as the soil is thawed down a few inches in spring. That'd go a long way to keeping your beneficial fungi alive.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

Pics from last year when we built it and now. Little more lush..

 

[tooln]

I use winter rye as a cover for my garden, help build soil and weed control.

 

[chucker66]

Here's a few pics of my "bag garden"

 

[westonwhitetail]

Does everyone let the rye grow in the spring until planting? Then what do you do? I don't want to till, but also don't want to wait until June to plant when the rye can be crushed over in a mat.

This past year we just kept trimming it back were we planted in the rows and eventually it died out. That worked OK I guess but maybe there's a better way.

BTY, great looking gardens!

 

[trampledbyturtles]

Have been messing around with season long covers in beds to let them rest and build before they go back into production. Spring mix, followed by a summer mix. Which I chopped today and planted it to rye. Will let it go in spring till June, then crimp, and plant a second round of tomatoes to stager production.
(Summer mix, cow pea, forage pea, hairy vetch, crimson clover, buckwheat, flax)

 

[sandbur]

New treated wood is ok for garden beds as they don't use arsenic anymore. Besides, there is toxic metal in all of our soil. Just cuz it's there doesn't mean plants will absorb it.

I use oats after I clear a bed in summer or fall since the frost terminates them. And the dead roots protect the soil over winter. I broadcast crimson clover into my sweet corn beds at planting time. Any weeds that grow in my beds are pulled and used for mulch.

Picked my sweet corn bed this past weekend. It was a jungle of corn, clover, milkweed, weeds, and a random pumpkin that has sprawled everywhere. Most people think crops need a monoculture or they don't get enough nutrients or water. But that's really not true. All the plants in that bed are feeding different soil biology, which will in turn bring the corn whatever it requires.
View attachment 45266
Here is the result, picked two or 3 days past prime.
View attachment 45267

When my pepper bed gets killed by frost, I cut the plants off at soil level and lay them down in the bed to return the organic matter. The same is done for the corn stalks after picking.

Results with weed competition probably vary with rainfall and soil. Weedy patches sure hurt my foodplot corn. We nearly always have a dry spell every year.


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[sandbur]

I planted radishes and turnips in the part of my garden where I dug potatoes. I do see a few deer tracks in there and perhaps this will be the year they start to eat them (after 30 years). It is right next to my Big Dog crabapple tree which gets lots of winter use.

I left the squash lay on the edge of the garden last fall and the deer cleaned them up.

Browsing on the garden by deer this summer is negligible. There is new seeding alfalfa, corn, sweet corn, and beans within 1/4 mile.


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[bigboreblr]

For those who do not want to terminate with herbicides in their own personal "food plots". Vinegar is a good option. Fill up a sprayer with it undiluted.

 

[Barndog56]

Wouldn't that make vinegar a herbicide? Just saying.

Before I would use it I would have to look for it's effect on pollinators and microbial life in the soil. If they don't like it, I don't either.

 

[Skeeter]

For something the size of a garden, covering for a couple weeks prior to planting with a tarp or other chunk of material that doesn't let light through should meet most soil health objectives while terminating your cover.