Cover Crops for Your Garden!

Boost Soil Health + Garden Resilience with These End-of-Season Tips

Are your gardens starting to look a little empty + barren after the fall harvest? It is time to clean out the old vegetation + establish a beautiful cover crop that has many benefits for your soil + future gardens. But first, let’s address the elephant in the room (or garden)…What IS a cover crop?

Planting cover crops is a process used to benefit the soil, rather than planting for harvest. These crops are planted after the growing season or in extra garden spaces that aren’t being used. Some benefits to these types of crops include:

• Preventing soil erosion

• Building soil’s organic matter

• Creating roots that feed the microbes in the soil through winter

Cover crops are available in many varieties depending upon your goal.  Winter Rye, Buckwheat, Peas + Oats, and Clover will help improve the soil so your plants thrive year after year! 

The best time to plant your cover crops is in the fall after harvest, when your garden beds are cleared up + free of debris. Overwinter these crops in your gardens! Once spring hits, you can till that cover crop right back into the soil!  When they are put back into the soil, they decompose + contribute organic matter, enhancing soil structure and fertility.

You don’t need to be an expert gardener to transform your end-of-season garden beds! Pick up the tools + seed from our Down to Earth garden shop to get started! Have more questions? Our expert staff is ready to help!