Cover crops

Well, I did it.  I actually paid money for some weed seeds, then planted them in my garden...on purpose.

I have to admit, this makes me nervous.  

But "the experts" say cover crops can be a great way to help improve your soil.  Some of them are nitrogen fixers, helping replace nitrogen that's been depleted by heavy feeders like corn.  Some have roots that help break up compacted soil, and the tops of all of them add organic matter as they decompose.

So this year I'm going to try two cover crops: Hairy Vetch (Vicia villosa) and Winter Rye (Secale cereale).  Problem is, I'm not really sure how to get started.  

For the first planting, using a hoe, I just loosened up the dirt a bit in the rows where the potatoes and late corn were planted, then scattered some vetch seeds on top.  I didn't even try covering them up or anything.  I did put the water hose on them that evening and later that night we got a good rain.  Hopefully the seeds didn't wash away.  I should know in a few days.

But in the really bad part of the garden, I had put down cardboard and straw in a strip about four feet wide.  I guess I'll need to move that out of the way first because there really aren't any "rows" there.  Maybe all of that can be relocated to the rows where the purple hull peas were planted this year.  Grow and learn, right?

I still have some Bermuda grass at the south end of that part of the garden too, so I'll need to take the hoe to that before I plant.  After that, I guess I'll just scatter a mix of the two kinds of seeds of that entire area, and use the rake to "settle it in."

I told RAF he isn't going to like cover crops one bit.  He's almost obsessive compulsive about keeping the yard neat, and it always bothers him in the spring when the red deadnettle (Lamium purpureum) and henbit (Lamium amplexicaule) start popping up making the yard look uneven and raggedy.  I always beg, "Please leave them just a bit longer...they're an important nectar source for insects early in the year and they're not hurting anything...."  He growls at me, but he leaves them.  He's now been warned that the garden may start to look pretty rough next spring, but he will just have to not look at it until time to kill the cover crops!   

I think so long as we cut these down before they set seed, we'll be Ok.  But here's hoping I don't regret this decision next summer!

More about cover crops, and specifically vetch and rye:

• Winter Cover Cropping: A Fine Time to Build Soil
  
  
• What Is Winter Rye Grass: Growing Winter Rye As A Cover Crop
  
  
• Winter Rye: A Reliable Cover Crop
  
  
• Hairy Vetch as a Cover Crop
  
  
• Managing Cover Crops Profitably, 3rd Edition - Hairy Vetch
  
  
• Vetch

9/25/2021 Update:  While a few of the seeds came up, I guess it was still too dry.  So I'll be starting over.  This time, though, I'm going to plant the seeds in raised rows. following the method described in this article, How to Create a Simple, Weed-Free, Low-Maintenance Vegetable Garden.

Fall garden visitors

In the early spring, we had quite a time with some regular visitor to our garden. Every night, the rabbits came out and helped themselves to anything they wanted. The nerve of those wascally wabbits!

I never did get any early beans to grow. Most of them sprouted, but by the time they put out their second set of leaves, "something" (probably the rabbits) ate them down to just a stem.

But eventually, the rabbits stopped coming into the garden, and we got a few things to grow. Even when the weather turned hot and dry, I was able to keep a few things watered, including the okra, lima beans and sweet potatoes. The Cherokee Purple tomatoes were still trying to make, and the purple hull peas put on a second crop even without much water.  We managed to beat the raccoons to the corn this year too. 

Then the fall visitors came.

I had noticed that something was eating down the big patch of Morning Glory vines that were growing out by the brush pile. I figured it was deer but thought it was odd that I never saw any deer poo anywhere.

It turned out to be a groundhog (Marmota monax)! The little guy (or gal) had moved in under the brush pile and apparently came out when no one was around and helped himself to as many of the tender green leaves as he wanted!

I didn't mind him eating the Morning Glory leaves. They had entirely taken over that area, and were choking out the Spider Flowers (Cleomes spp.). But then he ate most of my Lizard's Tail (Saururus cernuus) and Ditch Stonecrop (Penthorum sedoides). That wasn't very nice of him. And when he had nibbled those plants down to the stems, he went looking for more and found something wonderful...our garden!

He's not one bit shy anymore. He has started coming out in the middle of the day and helping himself, starting first with the overripe tomatoes, then stealing all of the green tomatoes, now pulling down the still green lima beans. I've never had any dealings with a groundhog before, but I'm quite certain from watching him out the window that they can be quite destructive to a garden. If he doesn't move on by next spring, he will be something we have to figure out how to deal with.  Mo would really, really, really like to help us out with that problem!

Our little groundhog friend, eating the green lima bean pods like no one is anywhere around.

As the heat and drought of summer really took hold, the deer came. And who could blame them? When all the plants around you are dry and crunchy, I guess it would be quite the treat to find some leaves that are still a little bit green!

Last year was the first year we ever had a problem with deer in our garden. We learned from experience last year that they can decimate the garden in one night, browsing their way through row after row, leaving nothing but stems. To try to save some of the garden, I bought one set of Wireless Deer Fence posts (one set contains three posts). I can personally testify that the posts can give quite a zap, since I have accidentally touched the electrodes two different times!

I set up the game camera hoping to get some video of the posts in action. Unfortunately, so far it looks like the deer have ignored the posts. Maybe I need to replace the attractant again? Anyway, they have now eaten almost all the leaves off the three "good" crops left at the west end of the garden, and so far, they haven't shown any interest in the deer posts (you can see one of them about two feet to the left of the deer eating my sweet potatoes).

I guess the okra will be done now that the deer have eaten what few big leaves were still on the plants. The plants look kind of pitiful...just bit stems standing in a row with a few yellow blooms here and there. The deer have not yet eaten all of the sweet potato leaves, and I hope that even if they do the plants are far enough along that we'll get a few potatoes from them. I think they've started nibbling on the late green beans though, so we may not get any green beans.

It's past time to set out the broccoli and brussels sprouts, but something ate them almost down to the stems already, so I'm not sure it's even worth the trouble. But I guess I'll give them a try anyway.  I'll put them somewhere closer to the house, and use cages around them so maybe the groundhog and the deer won't get them. Same with the late green peas...I hope that some wire will protect them from my visitors.

I'm sure our visitors all enjoy the garden as much as we do, but at this point, I'm going to have to say they've worn out their welcome.

To till, or not to till...I think I'll try not to

One of the problems we've run into almost every spring is how to get the garden tilled for planting.  Late winter and spring seem to be when we get a most of our annual rainfall and sometimes it can delay getting seeds or plants in the ground by literally weeks.

This year when I was piddling around on the internet, I started seeing articles about "no-till" gardening.  I wondered if that might be something that would work in my garden, especially in the spring when it was too wet to till.

What is "no-till?" According to Wikipedia...

No-till farming (also known as zero tillage or direct drilling) is an agricultural technique for growing crops or pasture without disturbing the soil through tillage. No-till farming decreases the amount of soil erosion tillage causes in certain soils, especially in sandy and dry soils on sloping terrain. Other possible benefits include an increase in the amount of water that infiltrates into the soil, soil retention of organic matter, and nutrient cycling. These methods may increase the amount and variety of life in and on the soil. While conventional no-tillage systems use herbicides to control weeds, organic systems use a combination of strategies, such as planting cover crops as mulch to suppress weeds.^[1]

I'm actually blessed with a really nice garden spot at this old house.  The problem is that the original "good" spot isn't really that big, and the dirt in the farther-out parts of the garden can get really hard and compacted during the summer.  It sounds like a no-till garden might be the answer to getting better production from those not-so-great parts of the garden.  So I've started making plans to switch to no-till this fall.  I have two big problems right off the bat.

First problem:  Bermuda grass.

Bermuda grass creeping into the garden.

Aggressive and tough, people don't call this "devil grass" just to be mean.  Once it's established, you can't pull it by hand, and if you miss a "node" when you dig it out, that node will likely take off growing again.  I've even read that roots can extend 3' to 4' down into the soil.  Yikes!

Most of the yard around the garden is Bermuda grass, and every year, it creeps into the garden around the edges.  Controlling it is going to be a real challenge.

Last year we had an in-ground storm cellar installed at the north edge of the garden.  We made the mistake of digging up blocks of Bermuda grass that had grown into the garden while we waited for the cellar to be installed, and used those to cover the red clay that was left piled around the cellar.  And when I say mistake, I mean BIG MISTAKE.  The garden surrounds the cellar on three sides, and the Bermuda grass has not only covered the clay, it's now spreading out into the garden itself.  So I'll need to get rid of that before I can convert that area to no-till.  

We made a BIG mistake by putting Bermuda grass around the new storm cellar last year. I've put down black plastic to try to kill it so I can create a strawberry bed there instead.

Second problem:  In a no-till garden, you're supposed to top off your garden every year with about 4" of compost and  organic mulch.  I don't have much of either.

I do have a small compost pile, but it doesn't make nearly enough compost to cover my garden rows with that much compost every year.  There might be enough aged compost now to cover one short row. I've bought bales of straw the past couple of years, but that gets pretty expensive at $7/bale, and again, a single bale doesn't cover much ground.

So if I'm going to make the switch, I'm going to have to get creative and re-think how I do things.

In the past, after I've harvested my corn, I would throw the green stalks over the fence for the cows.  This year, though, I had put straw around the second corn crop, and after harvest, I just chopped the stalks off and have left them on top of the straw.

This year, I'm leaving the corn stalks and leaves on the garden as organic mulch.

(This may be another mistake, because I'm pretty sure the second corn crop was infected with Southern Rust (Puccinia polysora), a fungus.  However, I've read that for the most part, the fungus doesn't overwinter in the United States, so hopefully I've not created a fungal party pad where my corn patch was!)

From here on out, all the plants that are "finished" for the year and that don't have some obvious sign of disease will be used as organic matter on the garden or will be incorporated into the compost pile.   

I also pledge to start raking up the leaves in my yard every fall and putting them on the garden.  I've meant to do that for a while now, but never seem to manage to do it. 

I pledge to use fall cover crops that will enrich and loosen the soil, and to "chop and drop" them next spring so they'll add even more organic matter back to the garden.

There are lots of old habits I'll have to break and I'm not sure I'll manage to be 100% no-till.  But I really want to see just how close I can get.  

It's interesting that the pull cord on the tiller broke off just the other day.  

Maybe it's a sign.   

Some good articles on no-till gardening:

• What is No-Till Gardening or Farming (aka No-Dig): Benefits Explained
  
  
• No-Till Gardening: An Easier Way to Grow
  
  
• Transitioning to a No-Till Garden
  
  
• Creating a No Till Raised Row Garden - The Easiest Way to Garden Ever!