Green manures for the small gardener - my review

[obsessed]

Over the fal/winter I sowed some of Park's green manure mixture it was like 11 bucks and a few more for innoculant. I have a smaller garden than what it was for so I gave some to the neighbors. I grew really well and my freaking pit bull loved it as in she ate most of it and dug up the seeds. Ok so bad dog I put up a fence and now she can't get in.

Fast forward to spring. Things grew really well and the time came to turn it into the soil. Now I thought it would be like anything else. I pull it up and cover it with some soil. It was so not one of the thing like tall and grassy was way lodged in there I could not get it out at all so I pulled and I pulled and I pulled. I got it out but .... No I don't want that again.

And then the grassy thing sort of spread. Like alot and like not in the beds. I have been weed wacking them but the keep growing.

So I know that it improved my soil. I mean biomass can't hurt. but it did take out the beds from production. And I don't have a tiller and really don't want to buy one/rent one. And then there is the escaping of seeds. I was thinking I will probably stick with compost and manure from the local horse stables.

 

[digitS']

Obsessed, I see that Park sells "red clover, bell and faba bean, field pea, barley, reeves oats, and winter rye" as a mix.

I have grown some of these things and imagine that it is the winter rye that is giving you trouble. Actually, it is the one I've had most experience with. Field peas will die off nearly 100% over a winter. I've grown oats back on the farm, for hay. Faba beans had so much trouble from aphids that I was faced with spraying them or giving up on their use as a spring-planted cover crop. Still, I think that I should have just sprayed the bugs - faba (or fava) are fairly cheap to buy in bulk and really make a quick growing choice for planting. I am thinking that improving the soil for warm-season crops could work out real well but I bet I'd have to fight the aphids :/.

Anyway, winter rye is just great but it has some of the most amazing roots and just needs a little warmth to grow and grow. My best crops have been from seed planted in July. By May, the rye is about 40" high! This is after going thru sub-zero winters.

It takes a lot of "pull" but there's a lot of gravel in my soil and where I can plant in beds, the soil is not walked on. But, once out of the ground - I had to dig out the bed to 10" so that the rye could be completely buried.

In a fairly cool soil place like here, I could find decaying rye roots in the soil at the end of the season. It really seemed a good way to get organic matter into the ground but it makes little sense for me to plant the seed after August. The 1st of May is about as late as I can wait to allow it some growth.

Steve

 

[obsessed]

the winter rye and peas sound right. I planted them in October and they grew great. But my laziyiness coupled with life have made me weed wack less this spring. And then my DH was like " what is this thing growing herein the middle of the lawn?" Talking about the rye and I was like I don't know what could that be....

 

[jamespm_98]

I planted "food plot" mix normally used for deer food plots I found on sale after deer season in my area. It had a mix of clover, austrian winter peas, and oats I also mixed in some winter rye. It worked great and was a good mix of legumes and grasses to help build the soil.

I have lots of experience with winter rye and usually let my chickens graze it down until it dies off, but if I don't run my chickens over it I have to chop it off even with the ground with a field hoe. I am lazy myself so I prefer the chicken method. It really wants to go to seed in the spring so you have to really cut it low or turn it into the soil. Once we get some warm weather it dies quickly, but during spring planting season sometimes I have to kill it off sooner. The other option is to cover it completely in the early spring with leaves to kill it off, this works well if you have some leaves. You can rake them off when it is time to plant.

I love cover crops, really keeps my precious top soil in place during the hard winter rains and gives my chickens some good winter forage since we get minimal snow in my area.

I purchased some Fava beans to try this winter when I ordered my seed this year. Not sure how they would grow, but read they really store a lot of nitrogen in thier root system.