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DSG
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Joined: Mon Oct 20, 2008 10:34 am
Location: Boones Mill, VA

Winter Cover Crops

Hi Everyone! I am a new gardener in Southwest Virginia and I need some advise on the use of winter cover crops for my vegetable garden. While I had pretty good results with my veggies this past summer, a soil test done at my local cooperative extension office told me that my heavy clay soil was desperately in need of organic matter. Anyone have any thoughts or ideas for me?

Thanks so much...I love this forum! :lol:
DSG

petalfuzz
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Sorry to disappoint, but no amount of cover crops is going to ammend heavy clay soil. The only solution to soil that is truly heavy clay is to add organic material and till it in. If you till in 4-6" of compost, peat moss, fall leaves or grass clippings, etc to the top 10-14" of soil, you may never have to till again (if you are unable to till for some reason, you could try and hire it out). A great resource for me was "Weedless Gardening" a book. The author recommends never tilling your garden unless you need to ammend the soil that is, and then only doing it once. He believes in and practices the method of top dressing only--with 1-2" of compost and mulch every spring.

I'm tilling out a new bed currently that is heavy clay and I am going to be adding 2 cubic yards of fall leaves and till that in along with grass clippings. It's slightly over 100 sq ft. And I plan on topdressing in the spring with manure and compost.

Heavy clay soil is truly a pain! Good luck. I also plan on helping to keep my soil arrated after I'm done tilling with cover crops. I'm going to go with lablab beans--but I don't think those are "winter" crops specifically. Good luck!

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DSG
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Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Oct 20, 2008 10:34 am
Location: Boones Mill, VA

Thanks for the tips, Petalfuzz!
A question- when is the best time to till and add in the compost, peat moss, fall leaves or grass clippings? Now (in the autumn) or in the spring? I have plenty of leaves now that I can use but the soil is very wet...
DSG

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smokensqueal
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Location: St. Louis, MO Metro area

I would for go the cover crop this year. I would find as many leaves and other garden clippings and til them in directly then cover with leaves and continue to throw other stuff on top during winters like you were going to compost. When spring comes around depending how many leaves you have on it you may be able to just till it all in again or you may need to peel a few layers of leaves off and just til in the stuff that is slightly decomposed and you should be fairly good. How was you Nitrogen? The only bad part about forcing this much organic matter into you ground that quick is if you are short on nitrogen this will make it worse. So I would just keep an eye on your nitrogen levels next year. Then on fall of 09 I would do a cover crop which will help add nitrogen back into the soil. Good luck but once you get it worked out it will be a little here and a little there and all will be happy.



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