Anyone do the green manure thing?

Just wondering if anyone plants cover crops, what and when they plant them, and then how and when they harvest them? I have been reading book after book on gardening, and especially vegetable gardening, at the library these days, and just started reading about green manure. My little tiny garden bed is probably not worth the time and effort, I can probably buy bags of compost to cover my bed, but I was just curious about anyone around here doing it and what plant(s) they used. Thanks!

I have used various types of cover crops. Overwintered crops, planted in late summer are effective to prevent winter compaction and/or erosion from the rain. I have used fava beans, crimson clover and a mix that also included rye and vetch. All of these do a good job of stabilizing the soil, and their root systems keep the soil friable and easy to work. Some add nitrogen also. In a bigger plot, you can just till them in when spring comes. I have used them in smaller beds too, and puled them out, either chopping them up and composting them in place or taking them over to the bin. A good summer cover crop to fill in areas that are temporarily un-planted is buckwheat. It is very easy to pull and leave to mulch right in place. That would be a really good choice for a small garden bed this time of year.

catgal77, very good advise from Mauryhillfarm. I might add earthworm compost tea. it puts gadzillions of microbes working in the soil. and Kelp meal, alfalfa meal. after all that, when you plant the next spring . you'll have giant vegetables growing in that soil. good luck, Jim

Yearly: Crimson clover (fall planting) & buckwheat (spring). Two "easy to deal with" cover crops. Pull up, turn over, let it decompose. Push it aside to plant early crops.
Sometimes I let things go to seed (mustards, lettuces, perilla) & allow everything to come up, especially wherever I plant tomatoes.
This has been a tremendously cheap & no-fuss way to provide nutrients. Favas are great, too, but you need to sow them prior to the arrival of cool fall weather.

Thank you all for the great info... it sounds like a worth-while thing to do, even in a small area like mine.

catgal, there are a lot of things going on when you turn in that cover crop. when the plant material starts breaking down. it cements the particles into aggregates. and also the microbes increase many times over. my soil is like spongy loam, when I'm working it. before started adding compost and growing green manure crops in the fall. and adding compost tea. all I had was sand. that wouldn't hold water. no earthworms. very little nutrients. good luck, Jim

Thanks again! I have been reading all these different books on the different stages of vegetable gardening, and when it comes to the cover crop chapter some of it I don't fully understand, but it sounds great to me. I really wanted some input on what folks do and what types of cover crops they use here locally... but I guess it also somewhat depends on the season you want to plant, micro-climate, etc.

I ended up with a kind of accidental cover crop this winter that worked pretty well, and was free seed. As Katye mentioned above, sometimes you can let things go to seed in the garden, and let them naturally populate open areas until you are ready to plant something else. I did that with a couple of parsnip plants last fall. The flower stalks were so impressively architectural, I just left them in for fun, and then the seeds spread over 3 beds. I didn't know if the little plants would make it through the winter, but they did very well and effectively kept my soil covered through rain and snow. Some of the roots are big enough to harvest now, and my family has had several meals of them. Others were too thickly sown to be of edible use, but I'm pulling those up and mulching and composting them. The ground beneath is a very nice texture and ready to plant in with minimal cultivating.

Holly - I don't know much about parsnips. Is that a parsnip? What's your favorite way to prepare them?

http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2883/2
This message was edited Jun 21, 2008 1:25 AM

This message was edited Jun 21, 2008 1:27 AM

Parsnips are a root vegetable,sort of like a carrot, but larger and white instead of orange. They have a unique, somewhat sweet taste. My son calls them potato-carrots.

Here are a couple of heirloom varieties, and it isn't too late to plant them. http://rareseeds.com/seeds/Parsnip

Harris Model
Delicious, tender, white, 12" roots have a sweet flavor; refined in appearance. Great boiled, fried, or used in "Parsnip Bread". A good producer and popular variety.

Hollow Crown
Tasty white long roots, sweet flavor, harvest after frost, a standard in all fall gardens. A popular variety in the 1820’s with very long roots. Pkt. (600 seeds)

We have cooked them several ways. We put them in a stir fry with chicken strips, onions, garlic, red pepper and broccoli. Sometimes we have that on a bed of spinach and romaine with blue cheese crumbled over it. You can also stir fry them with ginger. A friend of mine has a good recipe for that, which I've had at her house. I'll try to get it from her. You can just wash or peel the roots (with a carrot peeler) and steam until tender for a very simple addition to a meal.

That picture above is a stand of parsnips, about 5 plants across the bed. The plants look a little bit like a celery plant, with thick leaf stems.

Hmmmm. Parsnips. Clearly underappreciated. Thanks!!

I have hundreds, some that I am letting grow to full size, and some that I am pulling up to make room for other things. If anyone is in the mood for a ferry ride and a bag of parsnip roots, you know where to come.

you all are making Parsnips sound almost edible. when growing up it was like liver to me. I tried my best to make it disappear off my plate without getting caught. sorry!!! but you brought it up. aaaawwww!!! those fond childhood memories, Jim

So sorry, Jim, to bring up such distasteful memories. I guess I am lucky I have several friends who like them, so I have people to give away my hundreds of parsnips to. My son does not think they are so good, but he didn't say they were terrible either, and ate them for dinner the other night, in the chicken stir fry mode. I didn't notice the dog anywhere near the table collecting extras either.

Too funny! Sorry I have missed all this parsnip talk... man, with the weather being the way it is, I have been having to get outside and water every chance I get, just like everyone else I'm sure! :) Thanks for all this interesting info... I need to get something in that bed at the end of the summer, or else the neighboring bindweed will make its way in and infest... it is a constant battle... I would prefer almost anything to that stuff. I have a bunch of different seeds, I probably still have some peas and stuff, I could probably just throw those seeds in there and let them do what they will, huh?