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What's up world? Welcome back to another episode of Just Grow at the podcast.

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I'm your host, Big City Gardner. And today we're talking cover crops.

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Let's get to it. Are you looking for a way to improve your soil quality,

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improve the nutrients in your soil,

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improve the water retention of your soil all while making sure that the soil microorganisms are happy and thriving.

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Well, if you're looking to do that, then look no further than cover crops.

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So what are cover crops? Cover crops are completely different than any other type of crops.

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Other crops are either cash crops or crops that you grow with the intention of eating.

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That is not what cover crops are. Cover crops are grown for the health and benefit of our soil.

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Cover crops are something that we plant in our garden to make sure that we do not have any bare soil.

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Because if you leave soil, bare and exposed to the elements,

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what ends up happening is you wash away a majority of your nutrients and kill a lot of the soil microbiology.

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The main benefits of cover crops are to help prevent erosion and nutrient loss from the soil think of cover crops as a form of living mulch.

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Now, we all know that mulch helps regulate the temperature of the soil.

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It helps feed the soil as it breaks down.

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It helps feed the microorganisms within the soil.

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It also helps keep the soil from being exposed to the elements.

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Well cover crops, do the exact same things and more cover crops also help smother weeds,

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control pest control disease and help your soil retain moisture.

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Not to mention that cover crops will also help increase the biodiversity within your garden or farm.

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So how do cover crops work every time we plant something in our garden,

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whether it be tomatoes, radishes,

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beets, carrots, lettuce,

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it doesn't matter. It is drawing nutrients from the soil.

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Each crop will draw a different nutrient from the soil.

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After we harvest our crops, we need to make sure that we are returning the nutrients back to the soil.

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And that's something that you get from cover crops.

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Now, there are many different type of cover crops that you can plant in your garden.

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How do you know which ones to plant? Well,

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it depends on what time of year you're planting these cover crops and it depends on what you grew in the bed right before you plant these crops.

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Each cover crop can help revitalize a specific type of nutrient within the soil.

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So when people use the term cover crop,

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they're talking about more than one type of crop.

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Now the cover crop you decide to plant also is determined by how long you plan on leaving it in your garden.

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If you plan on leaving this cover crop for a long period,

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then you should be planting a small cereal grad.

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I'm talking oats rice barley or other grains like that.

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If you plan on cover cropping for a short period of time,

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then we need a fast maturing green cover crop.

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These quick growing cover crops will help out compete the weeds in your garden.

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Example of quick growing cover crops are things like buckwheat and peas.

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Now, one of the secrets when it comes to cover cropping is to make sure you allow the plant to mature as long as possible,

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but you wanna make sure you get to it and cut it down before it creates its seeds.

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Because if we allow the seeds to form those seeds will fall,

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plant will self seed and then you end up in a cycle that you definitely don't wanna be in.

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So since cover crop is the equivalent of a living mulch at some point in time,

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we're gonna have to kill this cover crop.

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This is part of how we help reinvigorate our soil.

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Now, here are the three main ways that gardeners kill their cover crop.

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And when I say kill, I mean, purposely kill,

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you can mow it down, you can grab your weed eater and just chop it down or you can grab a big pair of loppers and cut it all down after we plant the cover crop.

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At some point in time, we're going to have to kill it.

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Now, I know that may sound bad, but hear me out,

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our goal is to plant these oats or grains and allow them to grow in our soil.

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But the magic of the cover crop really happens when we work this green material back into our beds.

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So at some point in time,

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we're gonna have to cut it down. Now,

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three of the easiest ways to cut your cover crop down are one by mowing it.

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Two, grabbing your weed eater and chopping it down or three,

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grabbing your favorite pair of loppers or pruners and cutting it down.

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Now, after we cut the cover crop down,

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our work is not done, we now need to turn over the soil and work this cover crop into our garden.

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Now, I know I always talk about no till gardening and I am still a big fan of no till gardening.

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But this method of tilling the fresh cut greens back into our garden does more good than it does bad as this cover crop breaks down in our soil.

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It helps to strengthen and feed the soil food web.

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Now, I personally have some friends who are so no till that they won't even till their cover crop into their garden.

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As a matter of fact, on their farm, what they do is they grow the cover crop,

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they mow it down and then they allow it to break down naturally into the garden.

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They use the clippings as sort of a mulch.

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But one reason why I don't like this is because it prevents them from being able to work and grow in that garden bed.

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Or really, they're on a farm, it prevents them from being able to work or grow in that row for the next season while the greens break down.

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So even though I am a big fan of no till gardening every now and then it's ok to till the cover crop into the garden.

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The main thing about no till gardening is you don't want to work the soil deeply.

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Now, if you're a backyard gardener cover cropping may seem a little bit excessive.

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But if you live in an area that has harsh winters or you don't plan on gardening in the winter or summer because you don't like the temperature extremes,

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then cover cropping is a great way to make sure that your garden is still being nourished even though you're not using it now cover cropping isn't for everybody.

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I just wanted to tell you what it was in the event you decide to give it a try.

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So now that we know what cover cropping is,

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let's talk about a few different cover crops that you can grow in your garden first,

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let's list off the summer. Cover crops.

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One buckwheat, two cow peas,

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three sorghum grass,

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four wheat, five Austrian peas.

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Now, for a winter cover crop,

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you're gonna be looking to plant one of these,

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one crimson Clover,

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two annual rye,

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three hairy vetch,

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four wheat, five Austrian peas.

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You'll notice that wheat and Austrian peas can be planted in both the winter or the summer.

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Now, remember cover crops are often used during time periods when the temperatures don't really allow us to be out in the garden when it's extremely hot in the summer,

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or it's extremely cold in the winter, rather than leaving your soil exposed to the elements,

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you should just cover crop it or mulch it.

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If you don't know all the benefits of mulch,

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make sure you check out the just mulched episode of the Just Grow It podcast.

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That's it for today's episode. If you found this valuable,

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you know what I need you to do, tell a friend,

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tell two and don't forget I'm still on a mission to turn this into a top 10 gardening podcast and I can only do that with your help.

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So if you found any value in this,

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give me a like, give me a follow and leave me a five star review wherever you listen to podcast.

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Until next time, just grow it before I let you go.

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I need you to do more than one thing. First,

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I need you to like, comment, subscribe to the podcast.

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Second, I need you to tell a friend or two about the show if you enjoyed it.

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And if you have anybody you think I need to talk to,

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I should interview, send the name over,

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put it in the comments or send me an email.

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I grow at Big City Gardner and check me out man on Instagram and on all social media platforms.

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Big city gardener. We out oh,

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almost forgot. Just grow it.