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Soil, Compost & Mulch

What to cover beds with?

15 years ago

I posted earlier the question is it too late for a cover crop. I made some calls this morning to my local hardware and farm store's and couldn't find any cover crop seeds and was advised due to the temps it's probably too late. I will be planting early spring in my beds and don't want the seeds to be gerninating then. I have lots of vegie and yard clippings and lots of sun flower root balls, rotted pumkins and vines, leaves you name I got it. Can any of this be used and if so how do I do it? Thanks for any help.

Cherie

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Comments (4)

rj_hythloday
15 years ago
Leaves as mulch, leaves and the rest of it can be composted to spread out in the spring.
digdirt2
15 years ago
Where do you live? What garden zone? (You might want to include your zone in your posts.) That will determine what and how it is best to cover the beds. Also, depending on your zone it may not be too late to plant any number of things that can be used as a cover crop - turnips, beans, clover, winter rye, spinach, collards, even leaf lettuce. All can be allowed to grow and then tilled in in spring. All depends on how big your garden space is. ;)

Leaves, especially if shredded, make a great mulch for a bed and can easily be tilled in in spring, assuming you till. If not, then you could just hand turn them in as you plant. All the other stuff will compost well in a pile to be used in spring.

Dave
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luckygal
15 years ago
The items you mention could be used as a "sheet-mulch" if the larger pieces of the pumkins, etc. are chopped up. In the spring they could be dug in or placed in a compost bin or pile. Or covered with grass clippings, finely shredded bark, sawdust, used coffee grounds, etc. This may not be an overly decorative way to deal with compostable materials but they will eventually decompose and provide nutrients for your garden.

Do you already have a compost bin or pile? All the things you mention can be easily composted. All vegetable matter can be piled high and allowed to rot. It will turn into really nice stuff which is very nutritious for your garden. You really only need to pile it up and wait for the decomposition process to do the work. There are various ways to speed this up and there are many threads here which will help you do this.

You could still do a cover crop next spring in between the rows or in areas that are not heavily planted. Many cover crops can be easily pulled and dug in so can be valuable even in small areas.
Kimmsr
15 years ago
You may not have contacted people that really know what to sell there in Washington, but as I stated in my answer to your previous post shredded leaves, which you should see in abundance soon, will also work. Here in Michigan one could still seed Winter or Cereal Rye, see it germinate and grow before the soil gets too cold for that to happen.

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