💛 📖 See the GrowVeg book here: https://www.growveg.com/growveg-the-beginners-guide-to-easy-gardening.aspx.
Cover crops, or green manures, are a great way to protect your garden from weeds and soil erosion over the winter period.
As well as protecting your soil, cover crops can be dug into the earth before spring, improving the soil ecosystem and feeding your plants with essential nutrients.
In this short video we explain which cover crops are right for your garden and demonstrate how to get the best from these soil superchargers!
If you love growing your own food, why not take a look at our online Garden Planner which is available from several major websites and seed suppliers:
http://www.GrowVeg.com
http://gardenplanner.almanac.com
http://gardenplanner.motherearthnews.com
and many more…
To receive more gardening videos subscribe to our channel here: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=GrowVeg
If you’ve noticed any pests or beneficial insects in your garden lately please report them to us at http://BigBugHunt.com
It's a late start (nearly November), but it has been so warm (New England), is it worth trying a cover for some very heavy soil? You mentioned cereal rye. Are there others good for heavy soil?
I'm starting this year in my garden and I face two of the problems mentioned above, since I have (obviously) quite a lot of weeds and the soil is very heavy, clay-like soil. Can we combine several of the varieties to obtain "combined" effects?
I've used oats as a cover crop for a few years now. In years past I've used winter wheat. Winter wheat goes into hibernation during the winter months and needs to be dug up in the spring about a month before planting. Oats, however, will die when the weather gets cold, so no digging in the spring. I have seen some others I will try in this video as well. The biggest problem is getting the seeds; you need to think ahead so you can send away for the seeds. I cannot find cover crops near enough to my garden so mail order is the best choice.
should I rototiller before I place in cover crop as my soil is very claylike, and hard? I use crimson clover as a clover crop BTW.
2/3rds of all Organic Matter in your soil comes from roots. That is one good reason for cover crops. The biology in your soil needs roots to feed the fungi and the rest of the biology in the soil will eat your cover when you chop and drop it at the end of the season.
Good job! We included this video in our collection of the 11 best videos about cover crops: https://goodgardeningvideos.org/best-videos-cover-crops-to-improve-soil/
“Dig them in”. No they won’t increase OM if you dig them in. They will if you cut them and don’t till. I used balansa and red clover as a cover crop this year with some rye mixed in. Plan is to chop the cover crop down in rows, and put a thick (three inch) layer of mulch over top the rows leaving the other ones to flower and produce next years cover seed. To plant, dig a furrow in the mulch and lay down some peat moss or potting soil or something to sow seeds in and plant. Cover with mulch when seeds are mature. The balansa didn’t take as well as the red clover becuz it’s seeds are much smaller, but those that did have much higher vigor. Both are growing very fast, and will be left for about 20 days until I plant my garden.
Never rake the soil, you will dig out all old hibernating weed seeds into the surface, just apply compost on top and then spread the green manure seeds
I worry that digging in would hurt my babies(worms etc) so I like just leaving them on top. would that work?
dont dig them in. that only destroys soil structure and the critters responsible for good soil structure. additionally, more than 99% of the matter is very quickly decomposed and ends up as carbon dioxide in air.
terminate cover crops by growing self limiting suitable plants OR smother or crimp or cut at base and leave to decay without disturbing soil structure you're trying to build and not destroy.
soil loss by continual cultivation is to be avoided. water infiltration into oft cultivated soil is difficult.
Winter rye – stupid easy – germinates easily, turns in easily – plants the following years are supercharged.
Buckwheat for flowers for pollinators in spring, in the UK? I'm having difficulty establishing buckwheat in spring. It's very tender. But you say you can have it flowering in spring?
I use Red Clover
Buckwheat is one I use a lot.. for weed suppression as well as soil enrichment and to boost my bees honey production. Thanks!
Grow Veg – Which kind winter beans have you used?
I have only had experience with Austrian Winter peas.
Not sure if I would call it a cover crop but I like to grow peanuts (nitrogen fixer) in a few rows. Of course I harvest the peanuts and bury the plants back into the soil and plant something different the next year in those rows.
I have a south facing front garden with very hard poor soil. Even the weeds have a hard time. I would like to improve the soil so that by fall I could plant a small fruit hedge as a fence. By next spring is would plant herbs and flowers. My questions are: what sort of cover crop would work right now (may) and would be able to deal with this ground?
I planted a mixed cover crop in my raised beds as I pulled out spent vegetables. Last spring I cut down the cover crop and left it on the soil. As I was planting I was amazed to find lots of worms which I had never had in my raised beds before. My garden has been spectacular this year.
I took over a garden (in Switzerland) and there was an area that the previous owner could get nothing to grow. We grew phacelia and now that soil has normalised
Thank you so much! This was exactly the video I’ve been looking for. Quick simple very easy to understand and the explanation of the types is just what I needed. Good visuals.
I like red clover. The seed is cheap, fixes nitrogen and can be cut as forage.
Ha! Sorry bud, but if you understood this subject even a little, you wouldn't have dug, scratched & stripped your soil bare, before sowing your cover crops. Educate yourself.
Can cover crops be sown now in October in London? Ive never done this before.what do I do?
I was wondering if i should use all the beds for veg in the winter but i am back to using a cover crop for the nightshade beds as i can't put onion sets everywhere! The tomatoes, which grew very quickly, were so tiny when i planted them that i pulled my cover crop out last year before planting them and left the leaves of the cover crop on the bed – so next year i will dig it in sooner while young like you suggest. Here in France i have to find the latin names of the crops so i can order on the French site that i use.
What's a good cover crop for Prescott Valley Arizona???for nitrogen?
I have done really well with the tomatoes, but made a mistake of watering them from the top and the plum tomatoes went black at the bottom as soon as i watered from the roots they were OK. The peppers got too hot (must use shade cloth next year) they were better from September and some are still out ripening! The 'black beauty' aubergines were incredible i have just pulled the plants up this a.m still have baby ones to eat. The garlic has gone in it was great last year! Have a big problem with cabbages being eaten and lettuce not coming up. Also don't know which green manure to use overwinter – I have sown some rye and buckwheat but wonder which one to grow in the aubergine and pepper patch – mustard? Perhaps i am being too picky. Thanks for the garden planner it saves so much paper and continuous separate drawings; just discovered the planting table!
Is it good to sow seeds now at end of november?
I tried mustard last fall in my raised beds!