Comments on: Plant a Fall Cover Crop to Improve Your Garden Soil

By: Greg Seaman

Greg Seaman — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 16:58:00 +0000

We do not advise planting green manure around existing crops. Ideally, green manure is planted after a crop is harvested. By planting the entire bed in green manure, it is easier to cut and work into the soil upon maturity.
Tomatoes can be planted successively in a garden bed, assuming you have prepared the bed with nutrients and amendments such as pest if needed. But we have better luck with tomatoes by rotating them into different beds each year.
Tomatoes can do well in a hot summer if you keep up with the watering needs. Tomatoes do not do as well when exposed to rain or when the leaves are wetted during hand watering. We hand water our tomatoes below the foliage and this way there are no fungal diseases affecting the plants.

By: autumn

autumn — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 13:27:00 +0000

First of all, thank you for this website! It’s been so helpful to me! I started gardening 2 years ago and love it! Being so new to this, your website is invaluable!

I’m planning on planting a “green manure” crop soon (I’m in KY) to amend the soil. This is my second year gardening and didn’t do this previously. I read your article on saving cleanup until Spring… Do I just plant the green manure crop around the existing plants? Also, do I have to rotate plants if I’m amending the soil every year before planting? I didn’t move my tomatoes this year because the back of my garden is a privacy fence and I didn’t want to block the sun from other plants but they didn’t do nearly as well… but we had really hot weather this past summer too… maybe that’s why it was not a good year.

You also talk about mulching once the plants are established in Spring. Are there any plants you do not mulch around?

By: MyraSaidIt

MyraSaidIt — Sat, 05 May 2012 20:56:00 +0000

I have some old garden seeds that may sprout and grow a plant without producting any food. I am thinking about planting them anyway and just see what I get. Maybe they will grow some plants that can be chopped up and turned back into mulch. Has anyone done this? If it will work, at least those old seeds have not been wasted.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 17:35:00 +0000

I really impressed with your article,thanks fro sharing.

By: pam

pam — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 03:46:00 +0000

Less work and more effective than to work cover crop in, is to let the chickens do it!!
if you dont have chickens, you have to do their work.

By: Mary

Mary — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 10:31:00 +0000

Even i loved your post.

By: gena Womack

gena Womack — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 00:22:11 +0000

wow, I did not know this. My hubby and I just planted our second garden this summer and have never done anything in the fall. Thank you so much for this post and teaching us how to improve the soil fertility.

By: Linda

Linda — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 16:16:00 +0000

A great article on cover cropping! An alternative to to turning under the chopped "crop" is to put the mass into the compost. It should break down quickly, and then you just use it on the beds. It can be difficult to turn under plants on raised beds, especially if the person is short, like me.

By: Greg Seaman

Greg Seaman — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 04:35:27 +0000

Dried leaves will not contribute nitrogen, but they will contibute carbon which is a valued amendment for soil or compost. Cotton seed meal will contribute nitrogen, phosphorus, potash, and numerous minor elements.

By: Curtistine Earnest

Curtistine Earnest — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 03:16:15 +0000

Is there any nitrogen benefit when you use dried leaves? In the past, I have used dried leaves covered by cotton seed meal.

By: Melissa

Melissa — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 06:16:00 +0000

Nice! Just wanted to respond. I thoroughly loved your post. Keep up the great work.

By: sam

sam — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 14:06:00 +0000

nice articles by eartheasy to turn a home into a green home. keep posting more about improving the soil fertility.