Home Garden Cover Crops – A Simple Plan For Better Soil In One Season

Home vegetable gardens often go fallow between harvest and spring planting, creating the opportunity for cover crop planting to enrich soil health and build healthier gardens.

Cover crops — such as buckwheat, forage radish, winter rye and cereal oats — help build organic matter and aerate soil. Legumes like crimson clover form nodules which work symbiotically with beneficial bacteria in the soil to fix nitrogen efficiently.

1. Nitrogen Fixing

Cover crop plants contain high concentrations of nitrogen that are released back into the soil when they die, helping maintain an ample source of plant-available nitrogen (PAN) for subsequent vegetables to grow from.

PAN release from crop residue depends on both soil temperature and moisture levels; release is typically fastest when conditions are warm and moist.

PAN release depends heavily on the mix of cover crop species used, with phacelia and vetch contributing more PAN release than just rye alone. Therefore, to accurately assess total biomass and species mixture, an accurate weight measurement is key; an uncontaminated plastic tub or bag works best as this will prevent cover crops from being damaged during sampling, increasing DM while decreasing %N results.

2. Soil Stabilization

Many soils require stabilization to increase their load-bearing capacity and prevent erosion, with various chemical and natural methods depending on the type of soil in use and project needs.

Magnesium chloride (mag chloride) can effectively suppress dust while hardening soil particles into an inert structure, while Portland cement and bitumen emulsions also act as soil stabilizers, though their environmental footprint is much lower than mag chloride’s.

Grain crops like annual ryegrass, oats and wheat have extensive root systems which help break up soil compaction. Legumes such as crimson clover and hairy vetch provide additional nitrogen (N). Cover cropping multiple plant families from season to season can replenish soil nutrients while disrupting pest life cycles thereby decreasing chemical use.

3. Weed Control

Cultivating the flowers, roots and leaves of cover crops that have gone to seed can help your garden gain access to nutrient rich soil. As they decompose they contribute nutrients back into the ecosystem while drawing beneficial insects into your space.

Cool-season annuals such as rye are excellent winter cover crops because they go dormant during the cold months but will come back alive come springtime. Warm-season options like alyssum and clover also provide good coverage that can be cut before flowering occurs.

Beginner gardeners without access to a tiller should plant easy to terminate summer covers like buckwheat or phacelia; container growers can use silage tarps as a smother and freshening aid; while experienced tillers could opt for legumes and grasses which provide nitrogen, reduce compaction, suppress weeds and help prevent erosion while also drawing pollinators to the garden.

4. Increased Soil Fertility

Cover crops not only add organic matter to soils, but they can also reduce erosion and run-off, improve aeration, increase water infiltration rates, suppress weeds and provide food sources for wildlife and beneficial insects. In addition, cover crops can add organic matter that adds organic matter while also providing vital protection from erosion and run-off, improve aeration levels, enhance airflow infiltration rates and suppress weeds. They may even help with moisture and nutrient retention as well as feeding wildlife and beneficial insects!

Home gardeners frequently turn to rye grass as a winter cover crop. Once dormant, it reseeds itself before sprouting back once temperatures increase in spring. Red clover can also serve as an effective winter or early spring option and should be planted as soon as the temperatures allow.

Proper plant rotation, selection of adapted varieties, regular use of legume cover crops in rotations, as well as diligent management of tillage and weed control are essential elements to healthy soils. Without them, amending soil fertility would be like tuning a car with an unresponsive piston.