What Cover Crop Should I Plant In My Garden?

Do you wish to plant cover crops to fixate nitrogen?

Does the soil in your garden have excess nitrogen and you need it extracted?

Do you wish to plant cover crops so you can improve your soil structure?

Do you wish to plant cover crops so you can add organic matter to your soil?

Do you wish to plant cover crops so you can prevent soil erosion?

Do you wish to plant a cover crops to prevent weeds in your garden?

Do you wish to plant a cover crops to reduce nematodes in the ground?

You can plant any legume as a cover crop. Some of the legumes you can plant are berseem clover, cowpeas, crimson clover, field peas, hairy vetch, alfalfa, red clover, subterranean clover, sweet clovers, white clover and woollypod vetch.

Most grasses will help you extract excess nitrogen from the soil. Annual ryegrass, barley, oats, rye, wheat, buckwheat and sorghum-Sudan are all good choices for nitrogen extraction.

Cover crops with deep or fibrous roots such as cereal rye help to improve soil structure by breaking it up. Others, like mustard, grow very fast to produce lots of lush foliage that can be incorporated into the soil after just a few months to boost its organic content.

Most legumes and grasses will add to the organic matter in your soil. However, you should mix legumes and grasses if your soil doesn't have a deficiency or excess nitrogen. Good mixes are annual ryegrass and crimson clover; radish, crimson clover and annual ryegrass; cereal rye and hairy vetch; peas, oats and hairy vetch.

Most cover crops protect the soil from erosion by compacting it with their roots and by protecting them from heavy rainfall with foliage. The most effective cover crops for soil erosion prevention are barley, cereal rye, sorghum-Sudan and cowpea. Other good choices include hairy vetch, oat, wheat, mustard, radish, rapeseed, berseem clover, crimson clover, field pea, sweetclover and white clover.

Winter rye can directly destroy pigweed, lambsquarter, purslane and crabgrass. Sunflower and subterranean clover can suppress invasive morning glories. Sorghum can prevent purple nutsedge, Bermudagrass and many small-seeded annuals from taking hold.

Some cover crops can be used to reduce the number of root rot nematodes in the soil. For summer cover crops, you can plant cowpea, sunn hemp, sorghum-sudangrass and marigolds. For winter cover crops you can use rye, vetch, wheat, crimson clover and lupine.

If you wish to plant cover crops which will help you to attract beneficial insects to the garden you can plant buckwheat to attract, parasitic wasps, ladybugs, tachinid, hover flies and lacewings. Plant clovers to attract parasitic wasps, big-eyed bugs, minute pirate bugs, ladybugs, tachinid flies and aphid midges. Plant Hairy vetch to attract minute pirate bugs, ladybugs, predatory and parasitic wasps.