Planting winter cover

7 years ago

Bout this time every year I plant a winter cover of austrian pea, oats, rye, and a little brassica. I till my garden, then rake it smooth, and then broadcast the seed with a hand spreader.

I then use the rake to drag it and hope to get the seed to 1/4's recommended depth. But some of it does not get covered and when I water some more seed comes to the top but I've always had plenty of seed germinate.

And then this year, I planted Wednesday and we've had an inch and a half of rain. The soil has really sunk down and there's more seed on surface than I can recall.

There's gotta be a better way to cover the seed ? Outside of buying one of those rollers to compact the soil before I spread the seed.

Here's the seed I use

And this year I have a lot of the austrian pea germinating on the surface because its been so wet, IDK if this is gonna make it, or not .

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Comments (3)

Lynn Dollar
Original Author
7 years ago
Everything is sprouting, this may be my best winter cover crop yet. So much for worry, all the rain was good for it. I'll remember this in the future.
slowpoke_gardener
7 years ago
That is even more work than I do, and most of the time I get a good stand if I have good seeds. The only thing that seems to harm my young crop is the seeds being eaten or its too hot and dry soon after planting. You cant do much about the birds eating your seed, but you can give the plants a little water to help them get started. The rain can also pack the soil to where it will hold less moisture and air, but I over seed enough that I should lose a few seeds. I would like to have a cultipacker, but I am not going to spend the money to get one.
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Lynn Dollar
Original Author
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
I had to google cultipacker, but now that I know what one is, that's the tool to get the job done. But as you said, its too much money. Last year, I bought one of those landscaping rakes, its bout 54" wide, to make my raised rows. I used it to plant this year, just drug it through the garden, then spread the seed, and drug the rake through again.

I planted last Wednesday and I've got good germination over a large area already, that's pretty fast from my experience. I'm gonna keep it wet next year.