Cover crops gaining in popularity

Autumn is fast approaching, bringing with it gardeners’ and farmers’ expectations of an end to summer’s fresh fruits and vegetables.

That doesn’t mean your garden can’t stay busy during the year’s colder months.

“A lot of people tend to have a garden or vegetable production,” said Michael Woods, who heads up Jacksonville Park Foundation’s MainStreet Farms aGROWhood Initiative to bring community farms to vacant lots in neighborhoods around Jacksonville. “But they don’t realize that, during the coming winter months, (they can do more). They’re just going to clean out the plants and let it sit there.” 

Instead of simply letting it sit, Woods and Joe Radosevich, a minister at Manchester Baptist Church who leads Jacksonville Public Library’s kids’ garden club, both recommend cover crops to get a farm or garden through the winter while helping to improve soil quality ahead of spring planting.

Radosevich likes rye as a cover crop for his home garden, though the library garden features more variety, he said.

“Rye stays above ground and green all winter,” Radosevich said, noting he enjoys looking out his window in the depth of winter and seeing patches of green in his raised garden beds. “Rye has the advantage of feeding the soil from below but protecting it from above.”

Several types of cover crop, from millet to tillage radishes, were planted this spring and summer at the aGROWhood farm at West Chambers and South Church streets. The various cover crops soon will be replaced with new cover crops for winter.

“We grew them earlier so people could see them,” Woods said. “We will grow more. We’re removing the existing vegetables in the next few weeks and will plant cover for winter.”

While growing cover crops early limited the number of fruits and vegetables the farm was able to produce this season, it continued to help the farm’s soil quality, Woods said.

“We had to focus a little more on soil health” this year, he said. “By partnering with Morgan County Soil and Water Conservation District, we were able to identify nutrient deficiencies. They helped us do soil tests and identify our soil deficiencies.”

The district doesn’t do the testing itself but “can help you with navigating the process,” Woods said. “They can be a major source of technical advice on the steps you need to take.”

The aGROWhood farm grew brassica, grasses such as cereal rye — which is not the same thing as the rye Radosevich favors, though both serve similar purposes — legumes such as field peas, and sunflowers, which are not technically a cover crop but feed wildlife and can serve as one, Woods said.

The soil and water district also can provide farmers and home gardeners with information on cover crops, including when they terminate and the best time to plant them, Woods said.

Now, though, is a good time to plant, Radosevich and Woods agreed.

“You have to get it in before it gets real cold,” Radosevich said of rye. “When it gets cold, it will go dormant and stop growing. Now until early October is good for planting, but I’ve done it all the way to November. If you scratch it into the soil, it’s even better,” but you can simply toss the seed on top of the soil surface and let it be.

One caution Radosevich has about rye is that, after it dies, one needs to wait three or four weeks before planting other seeds.

“When the rye dies, you can’t plant seeds in that soil for three or four weeks because it gives off a chemical that will keep them from germinating,” he said. “Seedlings are fine. But I try to till (rye) the first week of March so I can start planting lettuce in April.” 

Brassica varieties such as turnip radishes will terminate on their own, Woods said.

“The beauty of that is, as they terminate, they decay,” he said, noting it creates more fungal matter to improve the microbial health of the soil.

Cereal rye is cut in spring and tilled into the soil as green organic matter, Woods said. That’s an advantage at the aGROWhood farms — including the one on Church Street and another that runs along Town Brook to South Fayette Street, one block west, and encompasses city land that runs southwest of West Chambers and South Fayette streets in a meandering stretch to South Diamond Street. The farms are organic efforts, with no chemicals or pesticides used, Woods said.

Cover crops help make the soil less compact and help manage nutrients in the soil.

“It also provides wildlife habitat,” Woods said. “Birds can enjoy it in the winter months. When it snows, (the snow) doesn’t turn into snowmelt and run away. It sort of sequesters water so it’s available later in the season, holds it in the soil” so it’s not standing water.

The green of cover crops also can be a joy to see midwinter, Radosevich said.

“Depending on where you plant it and how early you plant it, (rye) will grow up until it gets really cold,” he said. “I didn’t plant until November and it was only a couple of inches tall, but it was green all winter.”

Which led to timely reminders when Radosevich would look out his window and see it, he said.

“‘That right there is getting my garden ready for next year’,” he recalled thinking. “I’ve gotten really excited.”

Radosevich also is excited that cover crops seem to be catching on with more people. Twice recently he’s been stopped by other customers while buying garden supplies and asked if cover crops work, he said.

“Kids who help with the kids’ garden club now are strong believers because of how much it’s helped the soil,” Radosevich said. “… When people I talk to are interested in it, have become a believer … it’s probably wider spread.”

Cover crops’ increased popularity is good news for soil health, Woods said, noting an upcoming event in the works at the aGROWhood farm is intended to help others learn more about it.

“We’re trying to put on a workshop and invite people to come over for the day and ask questions,” he said. “We’re wanting people to start seeing cover crops so they can understand what they provide support to.”