farmer 1,078 #1 Posted January 13, 2011 Hello fellow Green Fingered er's, Until 3 years ago I had always used white Mustard as green cover on my vegetable garden, it provided dense, fast growing bulky material, which was easy to top down and incorporate. Then we had a "hard" winter which killed it off, so I switched to field beans, and even with temps down to -18c last year, they came through and did a good job. So, to get to the point.....What green cover...if any..do you use? :banghead: Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GlenPettit 1,717 #2 Posted January 13, 2011 Here in Michigan "Great Lakes State", Winter Rye is most common; plant it in October, it restarts growing anytime the sun shines through the snow, and again in April, but the Heat & warm days in May will kill it, then we plow it down and plant beans & corn to take advantage of all the extra nitrogen. -- Buckwheat is also a common 'Green Manure' here. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MaineDad 85 #3 Posted January 14, 2011 I'm with Glen - I use Winter Rye as a green manure. One nice thing about Winter Rye, is that it releases a chemical when tilled or plowed under that kills germinating weed seeds. It also will kill your veggie seeds so you should wait at least 3 weeks to plant after the Winter Rye is tilled or plowed under. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
farmer 1,078 #4 Posted January 18, 2011 Thanks for the replies, I haven't seen Winter Rye before, it looks very heavy duty (Cold tolerance) I did a little research, and some commented That it was quite tough to kill off. But if I can source some seed I might try a patch. I visited your garden tractor site Micah, really good interesting stuff, I see you did a Mrs Bean too, great fun for the kids, Great beans on the plate. :banghead: Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
