Cover crop or green manure
Cover Crop
Planting Cover Crops
We would like to turn a sideyard of dirt to an organic salad and herb garden. What would be the best cover crop - green manure to improve the soil before we plant. We live in south orange county Mission viejo, california. We heard about beans but not sure and also how much seed we would need for 30' x 10' area.
thank you, john and cindi
greetings John and Cindi
Great idea to plant a salad and herb garden in your side yard and living in Southern California you have a great climate and can grow year round.
Cover cropping is a good idea, I am about to cover crop my garden area now and will be using Austrian Peas or vetch and oats, which would also work well for you but in your climate I would suggest Oats and Bell Beans or Oats and Fava beans. In our climate the Bell beans don't survive the winter but create a lot more biomass than the Austrian peas or Vetch.
The key to cover cropping is to plant a legume that fixes nitrogen, the beans, and a high cellulose plant that helps develop the organic structure of your soil, the oats. Both of these will help build your soil in different ways.
How much to plant- Use innoculant
You will only need about 1-2 lb of beans or vetch and 1-2 lb of oats or rye for your 300Sq Ft area. It is best to dig or till the area then broadcast the seed and lightly rake or till it in. It shouldn't be too deep, 2 inches deep at the deepest. You can broadcast the seed by hand and may want to plant twice as much if you are not going to till the soil. You can just spread the seed and rake it in but it will not do as well. If you use this method use a light mulch and make sure the seeds don't dry out. You should also buy some inoculant to inoculate your pea or bean seed.
The inoculant will increase the nitrogen, but if you can't get the inoculant you can just plant without it.
In my garden calendar section I have a small write up on cover cropping. http://www.family-gardens.com/green-manure-cover-crop-2222010.html
Let me know how your cover crop grows and if you need any more info.
Happy fall planting!
Farmer Dave
