Hi Becky,

It's good to know y'all survived the first year because the first year is the hardest.

It's a little hard for me to answer your questions about cover crop planting because I've in the warmer part of zone 7 and you are in the cooler zone 6. So, hopefully Moni, George, SweetAnnie and other zone sixers will see your questions about planting cover crops and answer them from the perspective of also being zone 6 gardeners. From my perspective, it is not too late down here in zone 7, but that doesn't necessarily help you up in zone 6. In zone 7, you can plant winter crops as early as late August if rain is falling or as late as late October if the month remains somewhat warm (no freezing nights). In one memorable year when our first freeze did not occur until the week of Thanksgiving, I finally got cover crops planted in early to mid-November, but mine are usually in the ground long before that. Cool-season cover crops merely need to be planted early enough that the seeds can sprout and the roots can get somewhat established before colder weather begins.

Down here in zone 7, we can grow spinach, collard, mustard or beets, and kohlrabi deep into the winter, depending on how cold our autumns/winters get, and usually can grow swiss chard and kale all winter long. Radishes are a great winter crop because you can get "finished" ones in only 3-4 weeks from seed, so you often can "sneak in" a crop in between major cold spells. Turnips and rutabagas planted in late summer to earliest fall can tolerate quite a bit of cold, although very cold weather can shut down their growth. Garlic overwinters fine in the ground for me, but onions may or may not.

Some years I do cover crop (and for that purpose my favorites are elbon rye, Austrian winter peas, winter wheat and hairy vetch) and other years I spend the winter months piling on tons of compost and chopped or shredded leaves, or composted animal manure, or chicken coop litter, which in our case is a blend of hay and chicken manure.

With some cover crops, you can cut it down to the ground level and plant right through it. (I use a weedeater to do this in raised beds, sometimes using the brushcutter blade instead of the string trimmer line.) Or, with some cover crops, it is better to till the cover crop into the soil at least a couple of weeks before you intend to plant. What I plant as a cover crop and how I handle it in late winter to early spring depends on what crop will be planted in that raised bed in the spring and WHEN it will be planted. For example, if I am going to plant a cover crop in beds where I'll have early plantings like onions and potatoes, I want to plant that cover crop in late August or early September, and till it into the bed in Jan. before planting in Feb. On the other hand, I can plant a later cover crop in beds that will have the very warm season crops like melons, okra and black-eyed peas because those crops don't go into the ground until my soil temps hit 70 degrees. So, in those areas, I might plant the cover crop in October, but not till it under or cut it back until March or early April for a late April to mid-May planting.

Wind erosion can be an issue and cover crops helps reduce it. My garden is strongly sheltered from the wind by forested areas very close by on both the south and north sides, and some trees, shrubs and outbuildings (chicken coop and guinea coop) on the west side. With these windbreaks, wind erosion is not necessarily a worry for me. Since your garden is more wind-exposed, it would be best for you to have either a lot of mulch on the beds or cover crops to help protect the soil in your raised beds from the north winds.

Another option we don't discuss here as much is solarizing beds. Solarizing means you remove crop debris at the end of the season (especially if those crops had fungal or bacterial issues) and cover the beds with heavy duty plastic--either clear or black. The sunlight will heat the soil underneath that plastic and usually gets the soil hot enough to kill at least some of the disease pathogens. I don't like to solarize too often because it also can kill good soil life, but sometimes it is necessary, especially if you have a lot of soil-borne tomato disease.

You might want to call your local ag extension service agent and see what he or she recommends you plant at this time of year as a cool-season cover crop since they know your climate and current weather trends.

If it seems like it is too cold to plant any of the standard cool-season crops, you always can go with radishes, especially the really large Japanese radishes. They are a very good cover crop, produce masses of organic material for your beds and are quite cold hardy. Their seed can be hard to find, though.

Good luck,

Dawn

Uh, Oh, I just let my garden rest. :)

I leave stuff in, to collect and hold leaves in place, as a mulch.

I am planting bulbs, as soon as I think it is cold enough, but by Thanksgiving. Thought about putting some spinach in for a change, as there is a place here.

I really haven't ever planted a cover crop.

Sorry that I am not much help here.

Moni

We tried planting cover crop once--winter wheat, but the deer didn't know the difference between wheat and lettuce and spinach and then beans. So that was that. Dawn, I'm surprised they're not a problem for you. We till chicken litter--manure and woodshavings--in after it gets cold enough for the worms to go down.

As for overwintering crops, we've had spinach overwinter (in05 really well)and the occassional lettuce. It's getting pretty late here in z6 to plant any fall crops, although as Dawn says if the first frost comes around Thanksgiving--as it did here in 04--you could get radishes and maybe a bit of lettuce and spinach.

Dorothy,

Oh, the deer are a problem.....they just don't bother the cover crops much because they are so busy eating the winter rye grass! We always plant rye grass as a form of fire protection....sometimes only in a fairly narrow swath around the house, so maybe an acre at most, but sometimes up to 2 acres of it. The deer love the green grass so much they try to eat it too quickly after it has sprouted, and pull it up roots and all, leaving big bare patches. (sigh)

They also eat any kind of cool-season annual I plant, so my containers have to have chicken wire cages (with tops) around them, and the deer will eat anything that sticks out of the cages.

The new-this-year 7' tall garden fence has done an outstanding job of keeping the deer out of the garden. Once the fence was up, the deer could eat only those plants foolish enough to stick out through the fence. Instead, they went about a mile northwest and stripped our neighbor's garden bare--he's lived here all his life and never had the deer totally devour his garden before.

I suppose this winter will be a true test of the garden fence. If my cool-season crops are NOT devoured by deer this winter, then the fence will get even more credit than it has this summer. Some people here who are more familiar with deer than I am say we should have made the fence 9' tall instead of 7' tall to keep the deer out. I guess time will tell.

Dorothy, a LOT of farmers/ranchers grow winter wheat here, so the deer have lots of options. Also, we have a GIGANTIC coyote prowling about very close to our house and our deer population is dropping accordingly. I was discussing this particular coyote (he has a very unique coat) with a long-time resident who told me that this coyote, based on his size, his coat and his complete lack of fear of human beings, is likely a dog-coyote cross and is more dangerous to us and our pets because of that. That was not what I wanted to hear!

Back when I had only a 3' tall garden fence, the deer would eventually get into the garden and get some of the cover crops (and cabbage, kale, chard, broccoli, and spinach as well) but often not until February. Usually, they'd only eat a little the first day or two, so I'd go out and cut and till under the crop once the deer begin appearing, so at least I'd get some benefit from the cover crop before the deer could eat it all.

Dawn