Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Douglas Willhite" <drwillhite@earthlink.net>]

Our neighbor, Julie, who authored the following, and her husband Sean, majored in horticulture. How fortunate we are to have them as a local knowledge resource. Doug

 

Cover crops are a benefit to everyone's soil because:

 

1. You can buy less fertilizer. Green manures can help unlock soil nutrients that may be locked
up in insoluble rocks or minerals. For example, Rye, buckwheat, and sweet clover extract phosphorous from some insoluble minerals. When crops like these are turned under, the phosphate they mine from the earth is
released to plants grown later in the same area.
2. Cut Nitrogen Purchases. This is what I mean by "free" nitrogen. Tons of nitrogen hang in the air over each acre we have, free to use- we just have to get it down to our soil- and one way to do this is to plant legumes as
green manures. Legumes are alfalfa, beans, peas, and vetch - are just some of them - but these plants have the ability to host bacteria that can fix nitrogen in the air. Alfalfa, is the best of the nitrogen fixing crops and can add as much as 200 pounds of nitrogen per acre. This not only saves you money, but saves our earth from polluting it with fertilizers. The amount of nitrogen you get from just planting alfalfa on an acre is the same amount of nitrogen you would get from spreading a ton of 10-10-10 commercial fertilizer on that acre - so you can see how much money and time you save by using cover crops.
3. Stops the weeds. If weeds are a problem in your garden and you're tired of pulling weeds or spraying an expensive herbicide then consider using cover crops.

There are many benefits cover crops will perform in this area:
4. Improves your soil structure
5. Increases the life in your soil
6. Saves time and energy
7. Stop wasting nutrients
8. Growing healthier plants
9. Improves soil's ability to hold water

10. Make your garden more attractive

I hope this helped with your questions on crop covers. Our email address has changed to oakedokey@wildblue.net. If there's any way Sean and I can help, please ask us.

Julie