Spring Cover Crop is Coming In

We've been getting a lot of rain in NW Ohio lately, which we've needed.  Last night I went out in the yard in the light rain to see that my raised beds were dotted with small green shoots & leaves.  Our cover crop has started to grow!  Denise and I have been doing research on ways to naturally replenish the nutrients in the soil since we don't put any chemicals/fertilizer in our garden except for a general organic vegetable fertilizer that goes in most beds 1-2 times per year and organic tomato fertilizer that we use with our many tomato plants.

After doing research, we decided to try a Spring cover crop.  Cover crops restore nutrients to the soil while keeping down weeds and minimizing soil erosion.  Working these crops back into the soil before planting continues to restore nutrients and organic matter to the soil that improves the soil's structure and therefore, improve it's ability to hold water and nutrients.

So - we are trying this in all but one of our beds, where we've already started planting some early vegetable seeds.  I'll continue to post about how this works.  With only about 4-5 weeks before we start planting most of our vegetables, I'm curious to see how much green matter we have to put back into the soil.  Stay tuned!

Annual Red Clover starting to grow!  The red material in the photo is seeds that are being dropped by nearby trees.

We've been getting a lot of rain in NW Ohio lately, which we've needed.  Last night I went out in the yard in the light rain to see that my raised beds were dotted with small green shoots & leaves.  Our cover crop has started to grow!  Denise and I have been doing research on ways to naturally replenish the nutrients in the soil since we don't put any chemicals/fertilizer in our garden except for a general organic vegetable fertilizer that goes in most beds 1-2 times per year and organic tomato fertilizer that we use with our many tomato plants.

After doing research, we decided to try a Spring cover crop.  Cover crops restore nutrients to the soil while keeping down weeds and minimizing soil erosion.  Working these crops back into the soil before planting continues to restore nutrients and organic matter to the soil that improves the soil's structure and therefore, improve it's ability to hold water and nutrients.

So - we are trying this in all but one of our beds, where we've already started planting some early vegetable seeds.  I'll continue to post about how this works.  With only about 4-5 weeks before we start planting most of our vegetables, I'm curious to see how much green matter we have to put back into the soil.  Stay tuned!

Annual Red Clover starting to grow!  The red material in the photo is seeds that are being dropped by nearby trees.

We've been getting a lot of rain in NW Ohio lately, which we've needed.  Last night I went out in the yard in the light rain to see that my raised beds were dotted with small green shoots & leaves.  Our cover crop has started to grow!  Denise and I have been doing research on ways to naturally replenish the nutrients in the soil since we don't put any chemicals/fertilizer in our garden except for a general organic vegetable fertilizer that goes in most beds 1-2 times per year and organic tomato fertilizer that we use with our many tomato plants.

After doing research, we decided to try a Spring cover crop.  Cover crops restore nutrients to the soil while keeping down weeds and minimizing soil erosion.  Working these crops back into the soil before planting continues to restore nutrients and organic matter to the soil that improves the soil's structure and therefore, improve it's ability to hold water and nutrients.

So - we are trying this in all but one of our beds, where we've already started planting some early vegetable seeds.  I'll continue to post about how this works.  With only about 4-5 weeks before we start planting most of our vegetables, I'm curious to see how much green matter we have to put back into the soil.  Stay tuned!

Annual Red Clover starting to grow!  The red material in the photo is seeds that are being dropped by nearby trees.