I tried a cover crop for a few years back at my old homestead over 20 years ago and planted crimson clover to overwinter. It worked well to plant it in Nov and then mow it down and till it in by April. Our 1st frost date is around late Oct, last frost date by mid-April. I'd leave a few patches of the CC to bloom to attract pollinators later on. Your growing season is probably a bit shorter than mine but our winters can be brutal too.

I plant some tillage radishes in some of my plots as a cover crop. They winter kill and are not a problem for spring planting..

For basic soil texure improvement, I added large amounts of peat moss from a local bog and sifted sand...super change after tilling in. Horse manure added even more benefit.

Austrian winter peas is my cover crop of choice. I try to plant it in places that I've already cleaned off for the fall. . Then I follow up later in the winter with cow manure. Then till it all in by around Feb to get ready for early spring planting of onions and potatoes.

All that plus tending to a couple of low tunnels is my winter gardening.

Austrian winter peas in the foreground , uncovered.( This was a couple of years back).

The low tunnels have cold tolerant stuff , like brassicas , fall onions , greens like kale , collards , chard ,spinach , turnips.

.I'm probably the only one in my locale that tries to do this sort of thing.

Most people around here are ready to quit gardening after it gets too hot , like in Aug.

Lonely are the brave.

Okie HU

It sounds like you’ve put a lot of thought into your cover cropping strategy, and I appreciate your detailed explanation of the challenges you face! Transitioning between cover crops and food crops can indeed be tricky, especially with the timing involved.

One approach you might consider is experimenting with different varieties of your food crops that mature more quickly. For instance, you could try growing faster-maturing varieties of lettuces or radishes, which might allow you to harvest before you need to plant your cover crops.

Additionally, intercropping could be another strategy to explore; planting quick-growing cover crops, like clover or buckwheat, alongside your main crops may allow for a smoother transition and improve soil health without sacrificing harvests.

You might also look into using no-till methods combined with shallow interseeding of cover crops. This can minimize disruption to your soil structure while still allowing you to get those cover crops established before the food crops are fully harvested.

It’s great to see your commitment to improving your soil health! I’d love to hear how your dual cover rotation works out and if you find any other solutions that might work for your situation. Good luck!

Thanks all for the input. I'll have to post some pictures soon. This year is not looking very impressive. The fall was just cold enough to prevent irrigation but not wet enough to water the cover. None if it has done really well and the Oats & Radishes are already winter killing. oh well I'm sure they've already done some amount of good. I'll have to research the Austrian winter peas. It seems like I may have considered that at some point but I don't recall what my conclusions were.