How to Choose a Winter Cover Crop for Your Garden Space

For the most part, vegetable gardens are in use for approximately half of the year. The rest of the year, the ground lays fallow. To help return nutrients to the soil and protect the ground against unwanted plants and weeds, many gardeners plant a cover crop during the winter months. In the spring, these plants are plowed under and the ground is planted as normal.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Oat, Winter Wheat of Flax seed
• Handheld broadcast seed spreader
• Garden Tiller or Plow

1. Determine the type of cover crop you wish to plant. Oats and Flax are for the most part just a simple cover crop. Winter wheat can be harvested if desired, before turning the stalks under in the spring.

2. Plow or till the garden several weeks before the first expected freeze.

3. Fill the broadcast seed spreader with the cover crop seed of your choice.

4. Walk your garden space, broadcasting the seed in heavy concentration over the entire space.

5. Allow the plants to grow until spring.

6. Plow or till under the plants several weeks before time to plant your spring garden.

Tips & Warnings

• Although quite a bit of work, harvesting winter wheat can be done by hand. Grinding wheat can be done is small batches in a blender to be used for making breads or hot cereal.
• Cover crops can be a wonderful winter source of feed for wildlife.
• Seed for cover crops can be purchased at most feed or garden supply stores.

Resources

• Organic Gardening
• Grow Organic

[Willi]

on 12/5/2007 My favorite winter cover crop is crimson clover. It has gorgeous red flowers in early spring that are an important source of nectar for beneficial insects and pollinators.

[WriterGig]

on 12/5/2007 Thanks for the useful information! Would love to see one on harvesting wheat by hand.