I guess what you should do is have your soil tested for specifics but the soil here is so poor that I fertilize every bed when I prepare it in the spring. I try to add as much compost as I possibly can and since I use compost and sometimes (often) not quite composted compost..I always add a garden fertilizer...not much but enough to give the bed a boost. The first year or two that I gardened, I didn't do that and while the garden was OK...the third year I added some fertilizer and I had a bountiful year ...that's what works for me ...I am not saying that it is something that everyone should do...just what I do.

Ruthie, so your cowpeas in particular did well with that regimen?

In the past, I have fertilized everything in the garden except Spring peas and cowpeas. Almost everything has grown well for me too, with the exception of those two. Maybe I should rethink "no fertilization" for them -- neither one has been terribly productive. So I went ahead and top-dressed the cowpeas, which are about five inches tall now. I'll see if they do better this way.

If corn stalks have been turned under for a few years there is enough organic matter in the soil. Cowpeas extract their own nitrogen from the air and do not need any additional but a little additional does not hurt them. They do need potassium and phosphorous though so I add a little bit of 10-10-10 to them.