Saturday, April 16, 2016

spring green manures

last autumn i seeded some beds that were finished with their seasons with a fall green manure mix of clover, winter rye, and winter vetch to both set nitrogen and act as a cover crop for the beds...those beds have filled in nicely ( top photo ) and will be turned under to add organic matter to the soil...some beds ( second photo ) had things like late potatoes going on and were not seeded at all because it would have been to late for the plants to develop well enough to overwinter...so after work today i went out to the garden with some spring green manure mix to seed those beds...i have inoculated these beds with rhizobia bacteria which can survive several years without any legumes present so there should be enough of them left to join the green manures in setting nitrogen when the sprout...it is a bit late but i am assuming planting day will not be until later in may so there are a few weeks to allow the plants to sprout and develop before turning them under...any additional organic matter will help the plants and feed the worms ...which are critical to the success of the plants in the beds...it will only take a couple of weeks of lead time to get the timing of the process adjusted...that, i believe, we have in hand.

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