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hairy vetch or other cover crops question
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Posted by helenh z6 MO (My Page) on Fri, Oct 30, 09 at 12:25
| Does anyone use cover crops over winter? Rodale books sends me e-mails trying to get me to buy books. The tease to get you to read is gardening tips. They said to plant hairy vetch, cut it in spring and plant tomatoes in the area. The vetch improves the soil for the tomatoes. On-line I found that some university did a study on this that showed the method benefited tomatoes. |
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RE: hairy vetch or other cover crops question
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| Cover crops are extremely beneficial and a good use of you garden in the winter. I've used a mix of clover, buckwheat, alfalfa, crimson clover, and rye. Many fix nitrogen into your soil. You can mow in the spring and leave everything where it lays to use as mulch. Just don't let anything set seed and you won't have a problem. You should be able to find seed at Hummerts or Nixa Hardware. |
RE: hairy vetch or other cover crops question
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| I know it is a good practice, but I have never done it. I have a nice cleared area now and really should give it a try. Thanks for the tip on the sources. |
RE: hairy vetch or other cover crops question
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| The problem with winter cover crops around here is winter herds of deer. We used to plant winter wheat and rye, vetch etc. But the deer didn't go away when the cc was plowed over, but came back to dine on lettuce, spinach and newly emerged green bean plants. We have a fence but only 4 feet high. After years of no problem with deer, I just last week lost a whole row of lettuce and another bed of radicchio. Next year our garden will get a 7 foot high fence and we may try it again. |
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