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| Hi everyone,
I just finished harvesting two garden beds of garlic and now have, well, two empty beds and still two months of growing season left. My garden is only a couple of years old and I haven't done the best of jobs so far in enriching the soil, so I thought I might take advantage of this opportunity to use some sort of cover crop / "green manure" to enhance the soil. My usual source of info on this stuff is a friend who's an excellent gardener, and she recommended using something like bush beans, which she said will fix nitrogen into the soil and simultaneously allow us to get a bonus crop of beans. But she cautioned me that she doesn't have much experience in this area because she lives in California where the growing season is 12 months long and therefore doesn't use cover crops in this manner. I'm in Vermont, very different climate. I've always known legumes are a good choice to improve soil. It seems counter-intuitive to me that one could plant something that improves the soil and also gives a crop, but if that's possible it would be amazing. :) Still, the soil is the priority here. Looking for some thoughts from folks more experienced in these areas. Thanks! Charles |
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| You could grow those beans, any legume would work also, or Buckwheat could be sown. With either, or any other green manure or cover crop, the plant residue needs to be left in plance to enrich the soil. You can just cut them down or you can till them in. There is an article in the current, August/September 2011, issue of Organic Gardening magazine about cutting cover crops and letting them lay as mulch. |
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- Posted by lazygardens PhxAZ%3A Sunset 13 (My Page) on Mon, Jul 25, 11 at 12:02
| You could definitely grow beans, and instead of pulling them out, cut them off at the base and leave the roots (with the nitrogen-fixing nodules) in the dirt. Then compost the tops and dump them on the garden too. Don't beat yourself up over your slacker gardening habits. Just keep adding compost and occasionally fertilize and it will get there. |
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- Posted by charleskoz (My Page) on Tue, Jul 26, 11 at 6:26
| Thanks for the replies. Sounds like my options are pretty much open... it still seems odd that I could harvest something and improve the soil at the same time but I guess that's the magic of legumes. :) |
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