Patrick it's always wonderful to see these experiments you're performing in a small urban space. You may be right about the nodules; even without them you should still get a good N fix out of the clover. Hope it's broken down enough by the time you plant your melons etc. If you do find nodules, split them with your thumbnail - if they're red or pink inside that means the nitrogen fixing bacteria are at work.

I've been meaning to respond to posts on my own cover crop adventure and will soon. I will be planting red clover too.

There's something about growing cover crops makes a person feel like a farmer. Next step is to grow grains. Imagine patches of oats and barley waving in the breezes of downtown T.O.

Thank you kindly, Paul. Good to know that about the colour of the nodules, will check them today.

Sometime in May I'll be off for a week or two up to the cottage of a friend, up in a south-eastern Ontario farm country. Figure to stop by and pick up 50lb sack of alfalfa pellets and as many 1-2lb packages of rye, barley, wheat and oats as they'll sell me at the local seed & feed.

It's a heckuva note when the only way you can get buckwheat seeds in the big city is to buy packages sold for sprouts. I'm feeling downright deprived and underprivileged. :)

Will look forward to your posts. The red clover was very easy to sow and grow, hope it turns out well for you.

All the best,
-Patrick
(AKA the local Mr. Greenjeans)

That looks so lush and soft. It makes me want to roll around in it. I could lay down and take a nap there.

"Roll JPW over, in the red clover..."

:)

It's not quite so soft and lush as it looks in the photo, unfortunately. Having multiple pounds of Red Clover seed on hand and not much space or likelyhood of using it, I oversowed heavily, raked them lightly into the surface soil and then pressed the seeds down with a flat board prior to a gentle watering.

No thinning followed and many plants grew. They're still in heavy competition for light; fast growing tall and spindly. And the clay of the bed underneath is stubbornly resistant to being amended. Think I'm going to have to lasagna it many feet thick, this coming fall.

However, Lyn's photos do make it look real nice, she knows how to work a digicam. Here's another clickable image from last fall, a clover closeup:

All the best,
-Patrick

Patrick,

Were I to sow a bed as pretty as that I would have deer knocking on the door in the middle of the night asking for something cold to drink, and for the keys to the truck so he can go get his girlfriend and treat her to dinner. Nice looking bed for a city feller...

Blutranes

Hehe, Blutranes. Thank you kindly for the compliments. With a large park just behind the back yard, the ecology here is more active than most places downtown. But I've seen no sign whatsoever of deer... so far. :)

All the best,
-Patrick

Patrick when you do grow a small patch of grain, somebody is liable to tell you there's no point in anything less than an acre of it, so why bother. But growing enough wheat even to make a muffin, in downtown Toronto, would be more than satisfying, I think - it would be a political statement and even a poetic one. So good luck with your pioneering.

I'll be planting a narrow 60' row of grains including flax alongside a new raspberry planting this spring. Maybe enough to make a loaf of bread in August? Lots to learn, eg. how to avoid 'lodging' (and what is 'lodging').

Paul, I'd be more inclined to grow potatoes than grain here. There's only a few hundred square feet of garden space and spuds don't require thrashing or a grist mill. :) But the thought of a 6' stand of rye, wheat or oats rising up in the front flowerbed does tickle me. I can just imagine the reaction of the neighbourhood.

Good luck with your grains experiment and please let us know how it turns out. BTW, I think 'lodging' refers to grain stalks being blown down or falling over when they're heavy with seed, near harvest time.

All the best,
-Patrick