Cover Crops for the Garden

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organic gardening / videos / Cover Crops for the Garden

Cover Crops for the Garden

August 18, 2011 - GrowOrganic

Related Products:

Annual Cover Crops

Erosion Control Seed

Erosion Control

Perennial Cover Crops

Ryegrass Seed

Nitrogen fixation—how that happens in your soil

Tricia adds inoculant to our PVFS Premium Soil Builder Mix. In our new video on cover crops, and in other blog posts, we keep talking about how important it is that legume cover crops are able to fix nitrogen in the soil. You might be asking: Why is nitrogen important? Available nitrogen in the soil is the essential nutrient for green leaves, and new roots and shoots. What happens with legumes to fix nitrogen in the soil? Legumes work in harmony with a group of bacteria that live on their roots.…

Invest $22.34 in cover crops this fall & save $125 in fertilizers come spring

I surround myself with Peaceful Valley co-workers from 9-5 and farmer friends after hours. With August just around the corner, all I hear about are cover crops or green manure and how wonderful they are. This year I actually stopped and asked for clarification about how legume cover crops “fix pounds of nitrogen”. Fix nitrogen? If you add an organic, nitrogen-rich fertilizer to promote vegetative growth, you already know how critical nitrogen is to your garden. Now imagine planting an…

Growing Guide

Cover Crop Planting & Growing Guide (pdf)

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Categories: Cover Crop, Green Manure, Annual Cover Crops, Perennial Cover Crops, Erosion Control, Cereal Seeds, Inoculants, Erosion Control, Erosion Control Seed, Fescue Seed, Ryegrass Seed, Organic Gardening 101

karen khan Says:

Aug 19th, 2011 at 1:25 pm

Growing Guide for cover crops please

Al Lambert Says:

Aug 19th, 2011 at 3:28 pm

Hi
I live in Virginia in a high-rise condominium surrounded with numerous trees. We would like to plant flowers around the base of several trees but are concerned about the clay type consistency of the soil. Is planting a cover crop and appropriate solutions and what type would you suggest? Thank you in advance.

Autumn from Peaceful Valley Says:

Aug 19th, 2011 at 5:23 pm

Here’s the Growing Guide link:
http://groworganic.com/media/pdfs/covercrops-l.pdf

Charlotte, Peaceful Valley Says:

Sep 25th, 2011 at 2:49 pm

Al, A cover crop is usually tilled into the soil after it does its job, and you probably don’t want to till close to the trees.

Compost would be a good way to improve your soil. Add a 3 to 4-inch layer of compost and then a 4-inch layer of mulch around the tree, keeping those materials 4 inches away from the tree trunk and slope them away from the trunk. For more details about mulching near trees see our video and blog post on planting a potted tree http://groworganic.com/organic-gardening/articles/planting-fig-trees-and-other-potted-fruit-trees

The microorganisms in the compost will go to work in your clay soil and increase the drainage. You should see improvement in the springtime.

What kinds of trees are they?

Carol O'Donnell Says:

Mar 14th, 2012 at 7:02 pm

Hi,
Hopefully you can send me a downloadable PDF of your Cover Crops Solutions Chart. I would like to make copies available for my talk to my Master Gardener group.
Hopefully,
Carol O’Donnell, Master Gardener San Mateo/San Francisco Counties