ASHLAND — The pastor from one of my churches a few years ago asked me, “Is there anything that can help me take care of all the weeds that I had this year in my garden?”
My answer to him was very simple I said, “I’ve used some cover crops, and I can tell you what I learned and help you get a better crop of vegetables next year.”
I was walking down the street walking our dogs and I noticed that there are many different ways that farmers are using cover crops around the middle of August near my home. I saw the sprouts of Diakon radish coming out of the ground.
One of the local farmers had just harvested his field of wheat a few weeks prior.
The wheat stems were still in the fields, but it looked kind of odd. This field still had some green plants growing in it.
Apparently, the farmer that was working the field had a crop of alfalfa and the radish. What is so odd is that this crop of alfalfa is nearly ready to harvest in September.
A good rule of thumb is that if you want a cover crop to plant 1/3 of the way through the cycle of the prime planting.
For instance, if you plant 75-day corn on Day 25 you would plant a cover crop to extend the season.
If you were to transplant young tomatoes or peppers into a freshly mowed hairy vetch and winter rye, the tomatoes and peppers would do very well, because of the reduced weeds, increased nitrogen, and reduced water needs.
This sort of planting makes a lot of sense to me.
One of the tricks in gardening from what I’ve been told and what I’ve seen is that you don’t really just start in the spring to get prepared for that season you start your new season by finishing the current season really well.
A few years ago, I did a number of things that seemed to work. I also did a soil test leading me in the direction I needed to go.
Cover crops in August and September are a good start on next year’s garden.
First, I removed all perennial weeds from my beds as best as I could ragweed, lamb’s quarters, and pigweed and disposed of them in trash bags as I go through the beds.
The clean sweep you do where the season is ending in the normal fall bed you just pull everything except the seed heads, clean out the bed, turn the soil, and then plant the cover crops or mulches where the old, harvested crop came out.
Because of serious problems with diseases and insect pests in melons, cucumbers, squash, pumpkins, and all of the cabbage family, you want to take these to the curb and dispose of in the trash.
If you have the ability to keep an active compost pile raising the temperatures to levels that will kill the diseases and insect eggs you won’t have to worry about tomato and potato debris.
Otherwise, you will want to include this debris in the material for the curb.
Annual weed seed heads were also removed such as ragweed, lamb’s quarters, and pigweed allowing for very low quantity of weeds to be left in my beds.
At this point I also removed all vegetable plants that had diseases or insect pest problems residing in them.
By getting rid of all potential issues for my garden last year the weeds, insect pests, and plant diseases would be reduced for this coming year.
If you choose to use the plant debris and leave it in the garden you and had some diseases insect pests or weed seed and don’t reach the 130 to 150 degrees required to kill these problems, you will have the same problems visiting your garden next year.
Getting rid of the plant debris has worked for me for many years. Doing some basic hygienic type cleaning not allowing things to overwinter makes things easier and rougher for the unwanted guests next year.
Cleaning up your beds is my first recommendation for a good vegetable bed next year.
There are many considerations when you choose to plant cover crops, which will be discussed in a future column.
What I would like for you to consider for your own garden are some of the amazing benefits.
Rotating cover crops into your gardens will enhance your soil structure.
Compaction of your soil is reduced rain, hail, wildlife, and machinery.
Organic matter in your soil from cover crops increases water retention, smoothers weed germination, allows the soil to retain nutrients, makes nutrients available for crops, and keeps the soil cool.
Legumes like clover, peas, fava beans, and hairy vetch hold nitrogen into the soil as nodules in their root systems and become available in the following year crop cycle reducing the need for a nitrogen fertilizer application.
Certain cover crops like wheat, French marigolds, sunflower, sorghum, buckwheat, mustard, and daikon radish, can help suppress weeds.
Soil erosion can be managed better if you have a stable root mass of cover crops holding the soil in place.
When a crop is killed off and as the crop begins to decay you will enjoy the moisture retention that your garden needs.
As you can see Cover crops for gardeners can help with next year’s garden.
Hope your stroll through your garden this week was a good one and that you have started to plan your fall gardening.
As I feel the weather change from the heat we had not that long ago to the cooler temperatures.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate in e-mailing me at ericlarson546@yahoo.com. My column can be found at www.ohealthyfoodcooperative.org.
I shall do the best I can to answer any questions you may have.