[starkissed]

Hey everyone,

I have been prepping my garden for next season- excitedly as always! SO I have put down the compost, horse straw/manure combo, mushroom soil.

But I was thinking of planting some winter wheat or something. But where the heck do I get seeds for that? every farmer around here has it planted, but I only need- what, 2 handfuls? hehe.

And also, what would be the benefits of a cover crop? I think I want to develop some root structure in the new organic matter I put on top and all that good stuff. Let me know your thoughts.

[tle]

check with some of the seed companies that you can mail order from. No guarantees but I remember seeing it somewhere and I get Burpee's, Johnny's Seeds and Seeds of Change (organic and a little $$).

Advantages are the nutrients that it puts back into the soil as well as the stability from winter weather erosion. I don't bother because I have a small bed. Next year when we're at the farm and the garden is about 4x the size, I might look into it. Right now I just add rabbit manure to the top (I also haven't tilled in old crops from this year).

[goodhors]

Rye is the most common cover crop around here. You might check at the elevator, see if they have any seed left. Kind of late to sow around here. Usually covered and going green by late Oct here.

As mentioned, the turned over green stuff, is full of nutrients, which go back into the dirt for your summer crops of flowers or vegtables. Plant material returns organic matter to the soil, keeping air spaces in dirt when you turn it under.

I would pull out anything like tomato and pepper stalks, plants you had problems with, before covering the dirt and sowing. The old plants can harbor and over-winter the disease and insects that prey on those plants. Removing that cover will help keep your beds cleaner for next season.

[starkissed]

I actually don't till my soil- a little experiment I have been doing for going on 3 yrs. I was thinking a cover crop might help to keep developing the soil layer.

It might be to late for it anyway- considering we just got 2ft of snow.... and my garden is like a postage stamp!

But thanks anyway!!

[Benson]

Starkissed, Oats are a great cover crop and will winter kill in your area, so you won't have to till to kill them in the spring. You need to plant them quite early, like before October 1. You can broadcast them right over your existing plants, so the oats will fill in the bare areas. Then, as your plants die in the fall/winter months, the oats will continue to flourish.

If you don't feed oats, you can probably find a pound or two at the local feed store. They might have a broken bag.

The goal of planting a winter cover crop is to store excess nutrients that are mobile and easily leached out of your soil. The straw and compost are great additions and the oats will take up any nutrients the compost might be at risk of losing to ground water during the winter months.

I'm doing a cauliflower experiment in our field right now. Before we had 2' of snow, we had very nice cauliflower. I've never grown it so late in the season and am not really sure what will happen when the snow melts.

Do you have any winter crops in?

[JSwan]

Benson -

Tell us about your cauliflower!

I just got my first seed catalog and am starting to hibernate.

Do tell!