What are You Eating from the Garden?

[flowerbug]

...
Has anyone used winter rye as cover crop in the vegetable garden? Any advice on how to prep in spring?

yes, turn it under in the spring to make sure it has enough time to decompose before you plant into it. around here four weeks is usually enough time. mainly what you want to avoid is letting it get too tall which makes it harder to turn under and also is harder to decompose.

if you can't get it turned under and you have enough time before planting will happen you could also mow it and turn it a bit later. in our clay soils the root systems from the rye are great for improving the condition - i wish Mom would let me do it here every year even if it were only a few gardens. they all look so nekkid as she likes them tidied up and all the surface debris gone/buried.

 

[Cosmo spring garden]

yes, turn it under in the spring to make sure it has enough time to decompose before you plant into it. around here four weeks is usually enough time. mainly what you want to avoid is letting it get too tall which makes it harder to turn under and also is harder to decompose.

if you can't get it turned under and you have enough time before planting will happen you could also mow it and turn it a bit later. in our clay soils the root systems from the rye are great for improving the condition - i wish Mom would let me do it here every year even if it were only a few gardens. they all look so nekkid as she likes them tidied up and all the surface debris gone/buried.

Thank you!

 

[digitS']

Back in the days when things were a bit more manageable in size, I grew winter rye. Really liked it but it required some sacrifices from me.

Sowing the winter rye in September and about the time of the first frost didn't work so well. It would have been okay for ground to be used for summer crops but the rye was just too small to contribute much in the way of organic matter by spring.

I had some beds that I was willing to let go, "sacrifice," to a cover crop in August. Oh My. By early spring, I had winter rye nearly waist high!

The "second sacrifice" was that I had to pull winter rye by hand, dig out the bed and bury it! It made a wonderful contribution to the soil and to the vegetable crops.

Steve

 

[Cosmo spring garden]

Back in the days when things were a bit more manageable in size, I grew winter rye. Really liked it but it required some sacrifices from me.

Sowing the winter rye in September and about the time of the first frost didn't work so well. It would have been okay for ground to be used for summer crops but the rye was just too small to contribute much in the way of organic matter by spring.

I had some beds that I was willing to let go, "sacrifice," to a cover crop in August. Oh My. By early spring, I had winter rye nearly waist high!

The "second sacrifice" was that I had to pull winter rye by hand, dig out the bed and bury it! It made a wonderful contribution to the soil and to the vegetable crops.

Steve

Do you think it's too late to grow it now? I already spread bunch of seeds. My main purpose is for it to keep the ground covered so the winter rains dont wash the soil away since my garden is on a slope. I have leaves but not enough to cover it all. I sure hope it works.

 

[flowerbug]

Do you think it's too late to grow it now? I already spread bunch of seeds. My main purpose is for it to keep the ground covered so the winter rains dont wash the soil away since my garden is on a slope. I have leaves but not enough to cover it all. I sure hope it works.

no, you are far enough south it should be fine.

i've scattered seeds very late in the season and while the stand wasn't the best cover during the colder spells, eventually enough of it sprouted and grew that it was worth having.

 

[flowerbug]

Back in the days when things were a bit more manageable in size, I grew winter rye. Really liked it but it required some sacrifices from me.

Sowing the winter rye in September and about the time of the first frost didn't work so well. It would have been okay for ground to be used for summer crops but the rye was just too small to contribute much in the way of organic matter by spring.

I had some beds that I was willing to let go, "sacrifice," to a cover crop in August. Oh My. By early spring, I had winter rye nearly waist high!

The "second sacrifice" was that I had to pull winter rye by hand, dig out the bed and bury it! It made a wonderful contribution to the soil and to the vegetable crops.

Steve

pull by hand! that's crazy talk here! i turn it by the shovel full (not breaking up the clods because the roots will rot and do that for ya so why waste the effort?) and leave it to weather until just before i plant into it.

 

[digitS']

I would imagine that you should have a good stand where you are, @Cosmo spring garden .

It may not be waist high when you are ready to plant in the spring but not everyone can be so lucky . BTW, I haven't been able to justify a midsummer sowing of a cover crop in years. Just like using 60% of my garden for a "compost crop" - it just hasn't happened.

@flowerbug , it really wasn't difficult to pull the winter rye at that height. More difficult was getting short plants buried when the sowing was late. Nearly had myself another grass weed, to accompany the quackgrass, crabgrass, and Kentucky bluegrass that sneaks in!

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

I would imagine that you should have a good stand where you are, @Cosmo spring garden .

It may not be waist high when you are ready to plant in the spring but not everyone can be so lucky . BTW, I haven't been able to justify a midsummer sowing of a cover crop in years. Just like using 60% of my garden for a "compost crop" - it just hasn't happened.

@flowerbug , it really wasn't difficult to pull the winter rye at that height. More difficult was getting short plants buried when the sowing was late. Nearly had myself another grass weed, to accompany the quackgrass, crabgrass, and Kentucky bluegrass that sneaks in!

Steve

the issue of various seeds sprouting and growing from the cover crops is real, but the chipmunks and birds seemed to really get after them enough.

Mom is very finicky, this is why i don't do them any more, she doesn't like how the chipmunks would stash seeds off here or there and then we'd have clumps of them growing in the gardens. also any stray heads of most plants, once they are done she's after them eventually. we just don't have a lot of tall grassy plants in any of the gardens for long. especially since we do have the ditch grass which looks a lot like winter wheat or winter rye as it gets pretty big... well anyways, them being so obvious to us they never had a chance of becoming an issue here as a weed. between both of us scraping and doing other things in the gardens and then mowing too for the little lawn that's left.

 

[ducks4you]

Still eating tomatoes as they ripen. Will be cooking with dehydrated banana peppers and jalepanoes.

 

[digitS']

Snow peas --- pods and tendrils. Having blooms are a good prompting to harvest but, despite all the recent unseasonably warm temperatures, frost has repeatedly burned off the flowers.

Winter squash, of course - we have to stay on 'em. It was a lot of trips with them down the basement stairs. There will be as many squash to carry back up but several months to do it in .

I was tempted to comment on @Pulsegleaner 's pumpkin tread but ... what do I know? I've only grown 3 varieties in my life. The Howden wouldn't ripen to orange. The Rock Stars didn't go downstairs this fall. Other seasons, I've commented on how that Jack o'lantern is okay in bread, I learned to make soup with them, and they fall far short of suitable for pie.

The jury will remain out on the Cinnamon Girl pie pumpkins although they are quite alright for a flavorful pie. Of course, I'm looking for good storage life. Maybe/maybe not ...

Steve