Cover Crops of Note

Cover crops are a micro-farmer’s best friend, and one of my favorite categories for cover crops are annual flowers. Any type of hardy and/or weedy annual flower can make a good pollinator, add color to your vegetable garden during the shoulder seasons, and help condition the soil in preparation for planting fussier things like eggplants or lettuce. Especially if you’re wanting to grow root vegetables in heavy soil, the importance of cover cropping or otherwise cultivating and breaking up the soil first can’t be understated.

For newly dug beds, Phacelia tanacetifolia or Lacy Phaceilia is an excellent cover to condition the soil. It’s beautiful, a great pollinator, easy to grow and gives weeks of color in spring and early summer. It is hardy enough to plant in September or October and overwinter, but if you don’t get to it by then you can plant in early spring after the danger of frost is passed, which is right about now. If planted by mid-April your bed can be ready by July or August, which is prime time for planting anything you want to overwinter. Kale, cilantro, broccoli, carrots and beets are all good candidates for overwintering. When planted at the end of summer the seeds will sprout and get a bit of grown before winter, then grow apace in spring and give you the earliest possible harvest!