Planting Cover Crops and Eating Zucchini

Cover crops are planted specifically to protect and improve the soil. Many organic farmers plant legumes after harvest in the fall to protect the soil over the winter, when there are no crops, then work the cover crop into the soil to provide nitrogen for next year's veggies or grain crops. Some farmers also cover crops in the summertime. Johnny's Seed Company sells some cover crop seed in small amounts for home gardeners.

A lab mate of mine is working on what combinations of summer cover crops give the best protective cover, nitrogen fixation, and weed suppression. After helping him sample his plots last fall, I decided to try buckwheat (quick cover) + crimson clover (a tropical legume that produces lots of biomass and hopefully lots of nitrogen!) this summer. These plants will die over the winter and I'll work them in in the spring.

I'm going to try to cover crop 1/3 of my garden each summer to build up organic matter (affectionately known as "OM" among ag nerds like me) and help break the life cycles of soil-borne pests, diseases, and weeds. On the other plots I'll plant red clover in the fall after harvest to over-winter (red clover is a lot hardier than the crimson clover).

The bare soil, ready to be planted.

Cover crop seed: crimson clover (left) and buckwheat (right). Thanks, Burtie!

After broadcasting the seed, I raked it in to improve seed-soil contact.

The tomatoes continue to grow well!

A Pink Beauty tomato plant

Pink Beauty tomatoes (well, for now, Green Beauty tomatoes) setting fruit

Snap peas climbing their trellis (above and following 2 photos)

Snap pea plant beginning to flower and develop pods.

The peppers were not doing well (too cold and rainy) so I pulled them out and planted beets. Sorry, this picture is kind of fuzzy. It's hard to focus the camera on plants so small.

Some of the carrots never recovered from the munching of the bunny, but a fair number are bouncing back. I mulched in between rows to conserve moisture.

And the zucchini-nasturtium jungle continues to thicken.

More zucchini, almost ready to pick!

Over in the Little Garden, the broccoli did not like the shade -- some bolted, some got tall and leggy. But the spinach tolerated the shade well, so once I harvested my first planting of spinach I decided to plant more for a fall crop. Here I have two rows of soil open to seed.

Spinach seeds ready to be covered with soil. Spinach doesn't usually germinate well in such warm weather, but this is a bolt-resistant variety and the shade actually should help, in this situation.

And, back in the kitchen, I cannot keep up with the zucchini harvest! I'm eating it raw as a snack, in salads for lunch, and in tomato-zucchini stir fries for dinner! Good thing I like zucchini :-)