“No gardening practice yields as many benefits as cover cropping, and growing cover crops in every season is as important as producing vegetables [and flowers j.i.] for your table… These benefi-cial covers boost biological diversity in and around gardens, a key to naturally preventing plant dis-eases and insect damage.” — Harvey Ussery, Mother Earth News
I write as the first predictions of overnight temperatures in the 30s have appeared. Many locations may have fallen to 27 degrees on the morning of Friday, October 10. The bare earth in the photograph, above, has been transformed by a lush cover crop of peas and oats, shown in the next photo. Peas are not harmed by temperatures as low as 28 degrees. I am rooting for the peas while welcoming a timely frost! The vigor of the well-established planting is already contributing to the health of the garden bed.
“The peas add loads of nitrogen to the soil, feeding the oats, which produce plenty of organic mat-ter in their leaves. Added bonuses: the growing tips of the peas make a delightful edible pea shoot, the pinkish-purple pea flowers are very pretty, and the immature pea pods make a perfectly great snow pea” — Hudson Valley Seed Co.
The middle bed in this photograph is seen growing cantaloupes in the lead photo. Here, young rye grass is turning from red to green. See a patch of emerging red blades of grass in the left corner of the bed. This patch was planted days after the rest of the bed.
A lofty green blanket of winter rye in the third bed flourishes where a crop of onions grew. Calendula flowers appear on the right. Above, the large round mass of leaves of four frost-hardy Brussels sprout plants hold the promise of providing hearty food in the coming weeks.
A splash of deep red, the piece de resistance, top and center, is a young Smooth Arrowwood Viburnum, Viburnum dentatum. I was drawn to explore the wild border beyond my garden fence to confirm its identity.
