mid-to-late season cover crop, consider buckwheat

[digitS']

Flower bug, I grew winter rye (Secale cereale , several times.

When I planted it late, the plants were small and somewhat difficult to till under in the spring.

If I planted it just about now, I had the most impressive stand of rye by 1 April! The roots were amazing and I pulled the plants, dug out about 8" of soil from the bed, and buried all that rye. Digging into the soil after first frost, there was still evidence of those roots.

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

Flower bug, I grew winter rye (Secale cereale , several times.

When I planted it late, the plants were small and somewhat difficult to till under in the spring.

If I planted it just about now, I had the most impressive stand of rye by 1 April! The roots were amazing and I pulled the plants, dug out about 8" of soil from the bed, and buried all that rye. Digging into the soil after first frost, there was still evidence of those roots.

Steve

i used a shovel to turn it under - one lump at a time it goes back in upside down. amazingly improved with all those little roots decomposing in there for our heavy clay soil gardens.

 

[digitS']

At one time, I wondered what I could do with extra ground that property owners were interested in turning over to me. Ya know, out in the exurban environment, there are many, many people with more ground than they really want to do anything with. At one time, they may have ideas about a horse or something. Times change, the kids move away, now they just mow, mow, and mow some mo'.

I'd need a tractor for a couple of acres. I can run a tractor ... dang, I'm back to farming! What about a Bobcat with a backhoe? I had that idea years ago. Maybe not with 2+ acres (what kinda farm has only 2+ acres ?) but a really, really BIG garden!?

Flower Bug talks about scraping the soil surface and burying it. Sure, that fits with my decades old practice of composting in-place. Really, this is the French Intensive/Bio-Intensive gardening that I like .

You know, Bobcat makes a scraper attachment. Shoot, they make most everything attachment for those machines. So, scrape the soil in one direction. Backhoe a nice trench. Move in all that organic material you grew on ground used this season for that purpose. Move scraped off soil back in. Move dug soil back in. Your nice bed is ready for 2020! Keep things rotating, add deficient plant nutrients as needed ... round and round and round .

Steve
okay, i'm dizzy ...

 

[Carol Dee]

Hmmmm DH just planted buckwheat where other plants have already failed or bolted or areas that never got planted. He wanted it for the bees !

 

[flowerbug]

i think i hit the sweet spot with watering/rains for getting it going. another few days i should start seeing sprouts...

@carold dee the honey from bees visiting a lot of buckwheat is very distinctive and some people will not like it. i cannot describe my first taste/smell of it in polite company. i can eat it, but i am one of those people who can eat about anything... it stands up well to peanut butter toast. i would however, never get another jar of it now that i've finished off the first jar. i want honey to be more gentle on my brain than what that buckwheat honey did to it. Mom just called it "Acid." and would not touch it.

the stand i just planted is small enough that the affect on a nearby honey bee farmer would likely not even be noticed.

 

[Carol Dee]

i think i hit the sweet spot with watering/rains for getting it going. another few days i should start seeing sprouts...

@carold dee the honey from bees visiting a lot of buckwheat is very distinctive and some people will not like it. i cannot describe my first taste/smell of it in polite company. i can eat it, but i am one of those people who can eat about anything... it stands up well to peanut butter toast. i would however, never get another jar of it now that i've finished off the first jar. i want honey to be more gentle on my brain than what that buckwheat honey did to it. Mom just called it "Acid." and would not touch it.

the stand i just planted is small enough that the affect on a nearby honey bee farmer would likely not even be noticed.

The are many many other flowers around, the buckwheat should not affect the flavor too much.

 

[flowerbug]

The are many many other flowers around, the buckwheat should not affect the flavor too much.

*nods* pretty much how it is here too. when the guy has all his hives out back set up i'm sure he doesn't notice it at all in that honey, but he is also the source of the jar of buckwheat honey we tried and so someplace he has hives near large fields of it. i've only seen a few buckwheat fields around here and not every year or very often.

 

[seedcorn]

I love buckwheat honey. I’d be a regular for your DH honey if closer.

 

[Carol Dee]

I love buckwheat honey. I’d be a regular for your DH honey if closer.

Thanks Seed

 

[baymule]

I love buckwheat honey. I’d be a regular for your DH honey if closer.

You know she could ship it to you.