Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[mtncats@planetcomm.net]

Paul and everybody,

Mustard and arugula are "green-manure"?  News to me, but lots of things are.

This is a part of our perennial process, let it come up from last crop's 
seeds, mature, and reseed  itself.  The fall crop is doing nicely, 
self-seeded from the spring.  All I do is make sure most of the seed heads 
stay over the raised beds, rather than the aisles.  During the process we 
harvest all the greens we want.  Mustard and arugula being particular 
favorites here, along with cilantro.  What we don't pick becomes part of the 
mulch.

We have snow peas coming back the same way.  First year this has happened so 
I don't know if we'll get produce but it's nice to see them climbing up the 
tomato cages.

I thought I'd simply found a lazy way to ensure reseeding (under the 
tomatoes).  It's actually improving the soil?  Anybody here who can shed more 
light?

Tom (in central Va)

On 9/21/06 at 10:18 PM TradingPostPaul <tradingpost@riseup.net> reposted in 
part:

>        FORT HALL, Idaho-On Oct. 17 at the Fort Hall Indian Reservation,
>University of Idaho research and extension scientist Pamela Hutchinson will
>lead a tour of a 5-acre green-manure field trial that was initiated this
>fall by UI scientists and their research partners. Participants will be
>able
>to see six different green-manure crops, including mustards, arugula and an
>oilseed radish.
>
>
>        Grown for a period of weeks after the fall wheat harvest, green
>manures are increasingly being chopped and incorporated into Idaho fields
>to
>improve their soils' physical, chemical and biological properties and to
>reduce pest problems in the following year's potatoes.
>
>
>        "This is a great opportunity to learn about the different options
>for green manures," says Jennifer Miller, sustainable agriculture program
>coordinator for the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides, a
>project partner. "We've never before shown this many green-manure crops
>growing at once, and it's really helpful to see how much biomass different
>ones produce."