Do I need to worry about cover crops?

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passiflora07 Fern Park, FL(Zone 9b) Aug 02, 2007

I'm planning a raised vegetable garden - my very first! I want to use the beds all year...summer crops as well as fall crops, so I will be rotating the veggies between summer and fall crops. I've been reading about cover crops like soybeans, rye, etc....things that I guess you would grow but not consume. Do I need to worry about this in my little family garden? If so, would I plant cover crops at the end of the summer growing season..like in July .. and then till them back into the soil (i.e. kill them) just before fall planting in September?

I've just spent hours trying to figure this out myself through browsing the web, and I am still as confused as when I started! Everything I have found online seems to address big farms, not little family gardens. I would really appreciate some help.

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Farmerdill Augusta, GA(Zone 8a) Aug 02, 2007

You can grow vegetables year round, so cover crops would not be important to you. With raised beds you can continue adding compost and mulch to alleviate soil depletion. Cover crops are useful to growers for nutrients ( green manure) and to prevent erosion from the elements. It is a lot easier to add organic matter from outside sources to a small raised bed than a 100 acre field. Cover crops are sort of a grow your own project.

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passiflora07 Fern Park, FL(Zone 9b) Aug 02, 2007

That makes a lot of sense :) Thank you!!

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BobbyWong Gibsonia, PA Aug 02, 2007

How big will your bed(s) be? Any kind of cover crop isn't going to do you any good unless your space is big enough to rototill it all under. When I picture a raised bed, I imagine something that is so small that hefting a rototiller up into it wouldn't even be worth your while. Even if it is big enough, you can probably do just fine with a little compost and some manure, and by turning under any dead plant material at the end of the season.

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