05/29/2026
Nerd time. Cover crops. I’d like to use them more for fertility, grown-in-place mulch, and to keep photosynthesizing plants in as much of my growing space as possible, for as much time as possible. But, they are tricky to work into a crop plan when I’m working on such a small footprint and relying on so many plantings of saleable crops in each bed in a season. Also tricky to work out the best way to terminate them on our no till operation with no machinery.
That said, I’ve been trying!
Photo 1) Last fall, I planted a mix of mustards, radishes, pea, crimson clover, and a few other species into the beds where our garlic had been harvested. They grew well and kept the soil firmly in place through the winter rains and continued to thrive in spring. I did the very low tech method of crimping it down using my foot so it became a layer of mostly-terminated mulch over the bed, then transplanted squash into it.
2) Spring sown cover crop mix. It grew slowly and spotty because I didn’t really water it and it also didn’t really rain. It didn’t grow nearly as much as I had hoped, so when it came to squash planting time, I just cleared a small area for the transplants and called it a day. We’ll see how this experiment goes. I may have some rather tricky w**ding to do in a few weeks/months time.
3) Some fun pretty things I harvested out of the fall sown cover crops. Immature mustard seed pods and triticale for use in floral work.
4) Radish seed pods from the fall sown cover crop are a fun little treat. Crunchy and juicy like a pea, but with a lil radish spice.
5) Another spring-summer experiment. I had sown a bed of carrots here but it got quickly overtaken by w**ds and spotty germination. I decided to cull the carrots by running a scuffle hoe over the whole bed. Then planted some buckwheat. Buckwheat grows very quickly in warm weather so I’m hoping I can terminate it then use as mulch for my second planting of summer squash.
Always lots of experiments on the farm, and I find taking photos to be an effective note-taking memory jogger. And maybe someone else out there will find this interesting too. If you have any cover crop tips, I’m all ears!
