Critical Cover Cropping and How it Can Improve Your Soil Health

Cover Cropping

Are you looking for a sustainable way to optimize your garden? Cover cropping can help! This podcast episode will show you how to use this technique to improve soil fertility, reduce erosion, and encourage beneficial insects.

With amazing results, this natural alternative to chemical fertilizers and soil amendments can create a healthy and abundant garden. Watch and learn how to ensure your garden is receiving the best care. Ready to get started? Check out the Cover Cropping article on TwoOaksFarmTalk.com to get the most out of your garden. Tune in now and get inspiring sustainable gardening tips with cover cropping!

Cover Cropping Timeline

• 00:00. Intro
• 00:31. What is Cover Cropping?
• 01:43. Benefits of Cover Cropping
• 06:30. How to Implement Cover Cropping
• 13:54. Build a Natural Ecosystem
• 16:45. Cover Crop Options

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Cover Cropping – Transcript

Hey, everyone. Welcome back to farm life and freedom podcast. I’m your host, Amy Bell.

Welcome back to Farm Life and Freedom where we are cultivating a free life.

Today as promised we are going to be talking cover cropping. Okay. Now, if you’ve watched recently, last time we spoke about crop rotation. Not too long ago, we spoke about. Companion planting, organic gardening. That kind of thing.

And it doesn’t really matter what. Method of gardening that you choose. Cover cropping is something that every gardener or farmer can benefit from. Now cover cropping is the practice of growing a crop. Whatever. As your specific crop, you know, it should be. Between main crops in cycle. In order to improve soil health and fertility.

 Let’s call that the definition. A cover crop is a crop. That’s grown to cover the soil. And maybe, um, being incorporated into the soil later for enrichment. It typically adds elements depending on what you choose. And there’s a lot of benefits to. Cover cropping. I’m going to give you a few. Okay. Here, I’ve got a list. I’ve got, I’ve got my notes here.

 For one, there is protecting the soil from erosion. If you have had soil that is uncovered just dirt and you get a bad ring. So this is just one example, but everyone’s probably seen this. You get a bad rain and half your dirt’s gone the next day. Okay, because of erosion. Something like that. That’s just one example, but it does happen if there was a crop grown there, A cover crop. Then that is not something that would happen because the roots of the cover crop hold onto the soil and whatever is above the ground on the cover crop.

Helps to, divert that hard rain. Okay. Increased organic matter. When I grow a cover crop in most cases, not all, but in most cases, whatever it was that grew. I turned that back into the soil. So that organic matter that its plants are decomposing right there in the soil where I’m planting.

Adding that organic matter to my, soil, which of course. Another one. Improves the soil structure. So that’s another benefit. Reduced weed pressure. Think about it this way. When you. Let’s say lettuce. It’s something that I do when I plant lettuce, I don’t plant it in a row. You know, with certain spacing apart.

I scatter the seed. I plant my lettuce everywhere. So then when the bed comes up, it’s completely covered. Well, something like that. Helps to reduce the pressure of weeds on your beds because they can’t get the adequate. You know, sunlight and what have you, because your crops are taking that up. They’re shading out the weeds.

And that kind of thing. So it does reduce the weed pressure. Um, water infiltration. Okay. So we talked about the fact that A cover crop can help keep from soil erosion. But it also allows water to get in and hold. Uh, for a little bit in your bed, the plants themselves hold onto that moisture.

Allowing it to saturate, but not necessarily make it like clay where it never drains. It offers channels. For water to get into. If you’re like us, this is I’m Southern Oklahoma out here. Everything’s dad, gum, clay. Okay. So I have to do a lot of different things to help my soil be able to do what it needs to do. Well, what happens on clay?

Is a lot of times water hits the top and runs off or it, it soaks in and never goes away. I mean, at least for a long time. Clay will dadgum hold onto it. But having cover crops, certain ones allow channels for the water to go through. And then those channels also do some other things. We’ll talk about.

 Cover crops also provide a habitat. For beneficial insects. Now we’ve talked previously in companion planting. And when organic gardening. You want to attract beneficial insects? You don’t want to spray chemical bug killers because they they’re indiscriminate. They kill everything. Well, there are good bugs out there. Believe it or not. There are good bugs out there. And those bugs eat the bad bugs.

Or they’ve pushed them away in some way. So being able to provide a habitat for the good ones, you will help to at least decrease the population of the bad ones. So that’s a good thing. , they can fix nitrogen into a deficient soil. Many cover crops are legumes which we talked about previously fixed nitrogen from the air into the soil. So that’s something that’s really great.

And then they can help to increase your yields. So what gardener does not want to grow more? You know, with their plants. So that’s something that cover cropping can help with as well. Um, SARE sustainable agriculture research and education is an organization. It’s a great resource. They state that cover crops should be viewed as a longterm investment in soil health and farm management.

I believe that with my soul. Okay. You may spend a few bucks on, um, whatever the seeds are for your cover crop and depending on the size of your garden, it may just be a tiny bit, or it may, may be a lot. If you, if you are a farmer and you grow, um, fields of corn or wheat or whatever, There. You may have.

A larger investment in order to get a cover crop down. But if you will have that much more of a benefit because cover crops are very beneficial. There are many types of cover crops. Okay. But they come down, I break them down here into. Well, there’s two different. Uh, types, but I also break down into a third

so you want to choose your cover crop based on your needs, based on what your soil needs, based on the type of gardening or farming operation that you’re running. But we’ll start with what your, what your garden needs, what your soil needs. Legumes we’ve talked about fixed nitrogen from the air into the soil.

For whatever crops come after. Right. You know, we talked last time about crop rotation. And you wanted, do you know. Heavy feeders and then givers, and then, you know, just kind of ones that chill out and don’t do a whole lot. We’ll legumes are the ones that give. And in your rotation. Legumes.

Can also be your cover crop. So, depending on how you plant it, you might, have tomatoes growing. Really hard in certain beds. And then. After the tomatoes die off, you may be able to put in. A legume Clover or peas or whatever. Something that will fix nitrogen during your off season. Let it do its job during the off season as a cover crop.

And then you can pick up your next. Um, scheduled rotation. As soon as spring hits again. So something to think about. Legumes we’ve talked before there clovers a variety of clovers vetch peas and beans. Um, anything that fixes nitrogen, then there are the non legumes. Okay. Now these scavenge nutrients, they suppress weeds. They provide erosian control.

And they add residue for organic matter. Um, I’ll speak about that here in just a sec. Okay. So give you some ideas of what some of those might be. Rye or wheat, barley oats, annual ryegrass buckwheat, mustards, brassicas. And one of my favorites because of where I am is the forage radish. Okay. It’s basically.

It’s a giant radish and it will grow and bust through anything I’m telling you. We have hard, hard clay out here. And my first season of doing a cover crop out here, I knew what I needed. We, we desperately needed extra organic matter in our soil. And, um, I needed something that would bust up this soil, helped me add some water to the inside of it, not just on top of it. And I planted a.

I planted a mixture, but it was really heavy on the forage radish. They grow big and strong. And what happens is they grow. And I mean, there, they can get pretty good size. And what happens is they die off and then it, it makes a hollow. So that, that decaying forage, radish. Will decay inside the hollow that it made. And then that hollow can be filled with, well, for one the decayed matter, but then also it makes a channel for water.

Which is obviously really good when you’re trying to grow something there. You want to be able to get water to the roots of your plant, but you also want to have that organic matter in there. And that’s something that I always add in, even if it’s just a mixture that has some. Of the forage radish.

Out here in our area, especially we desperately need that. So I always try to add that in. Okay. And then now we’re talking about the seed mixtures. Um, they combine the benefits of your grasses and your legumes so they produce. More biomass they. You get more? And nitrogen into your soil.

And they offer better weed control. They offer a wider range of beneficial insects because they there’s more different plants. So there’s more different. Insects that they attract. Cover cropping is a crucial part. Of organic gardening. Okay. More. So even than say crop rotation and that kind of thing, you can potentially get a round.

The crop rotation by.

By adding in fertilizers. And what have you. But the cover crops. Especially if you’re doing organic gardening.

They are so, so beneficial.

I hate to weed. I really hate it. I have to do it every single day. But I hate to weed and if I can plant something. That will. Crush out. The weeds. Then, I mean, you had me at weed control. I love that idea. So the cover crops are fantastic for that. If you’ve ever noticed. At the end of the season, sometimes you’re just, ah,

I’m tired. I’m tired of gardening and I’m just going to throw my hands up and I’ll just pick it back up again in the spring, but then you can’t back out in the spring and everything’s covered in grass and weeds. And. It’s just a nightmare to pull back together. Well, if you plant a cover crop, take that extra little time at the end of your seasons.

To when your plants die off or when it’s time to pull them up. To plant a cover crop. Then that makes your. Next season you’re starting season in early spring, or what have you just so much easier. Just trust me on this one, you will love the cover crop. Once you get going in it.

Um, one of the things that you’re aiming for. When you are doing. Organic gardening for certain, but. Any gardening, the whole idea. Is to create a natural ecosystem. That does the work for you, right? I mean, who doesn’t want that? So the cover cropping is something that can add to that. Cover crops, enhanced biodiversity.

Which contributes to a healthier ecosystem. And we’re talking about like micro ecosystems. Okay. So in my garden, This is my ecosystem. Something that I have put together for, for my plants. I also have a natural pool. If anyone followed along on TwoOaksFarmTalk, we went through all the steps of that natural pool.

And in that I created. An ecosystem all by itself. There’s no chemicals in there. Everything there. Works together. To create a natural system that cleans the water and that feeds the plants and that feeds the fish and all the way back around. So it’s, it’s an ecosystem. That works for you. That is what your that’s, what your true goal is because, you know, if your goal is just growing vegetables, you can do that with miracle grow.

They won’t be terribly healthy, but unless you use the organic one, maybe, but they will. Grow the vegetables. However, if you make your goal. Creating a natural, healthy ecosystem. Then the side effect of that is growing great vegetables. So it’s all on the way you look at it. The way you, um, jump in. Okay.

 That’s the main thing. So when you’re, when you’re looking into. Cover cropping. You want to look at what your soil needs, you can look at your plants and see kind of what you mean. For instance, did they deplete the soil? Are they a heavy feeder or did they add to the soil? Are they a legume you don’t need to put a legume cover crop right after a legume crop.

So you can look at which ones you want to, choose to do your cover crop based on what was planted there and what your soil needs. If you need the best up the dirt, turnips and radish, you know, if you need to cover, you know, very quickly before the, the weeds jump in, then, you know, um, annual ryegrass or wheat or something like that.

 There’s this a variety to choose from and to help you out there on TwoOaksFarmTalk.Com go to the post, the article on cover cropping, and I’ve got a wide variety of different. Links to different cover crop seeds for you to kind of look at and see you read about and see which ones might be beneficial for you. And, okay. So right now we’re in the middle of this season, this gardening season.

I actually just kind of barely getting started, but. We’re in the season. People have their gardens growing. Now is when you want to start thinking about your cover crop for when your, that you know, that bed or that garden starts pulling back. You want to have those seeds ready? Because if you wait in between, then you can have weeds and grass kind of jump in there before you do and take over. And so your, your cover crop won’t be as helpful, or you’ll have to spend lots of extra hours weeding the garden before you can plant a cover crop.

So, if you have any questions about any of this, remember, I am always happy to answer questions. Contact me. You can get this episode in audio or video form on farm life and freedom.com. And then of course you can get it wherever you normally get your podcasts. And you can contact me there too. You can message me or email me or what ever.

You guys have a great week and. We’ll see, I’m not really sure what the next episode’s going to be. I think it’s going to depend a lot on what happens this week.

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