Looking for Hairy Vetch (Vicia villosa), also called Fodder Vetch or Winter Vetch to improve my garden over the winter. Look through my trade list or email me with any requests. I haven't updated my list in a little while & have some items not on there. If you have a large quantity (1/4lb-ish), would be willing to trade for a plant also. Thanks! Grace

To temper the invasive statement, that quality depends greatly on conditions, climate, soil etc. If you let it drop pods, then it's reasonable to expect proliferation. It also spreads by stolon. You could try buckwheat; though not a legume thus not N fixing, will grow on almost any soil. If you let it drop seed it will be back, but it's very easy to control and provides lots of green material.

kimmser/peter- Thanks for the interest and info. I recently had a soil test done (my first one) and everything was in the high range EXCEPT Potassium. However, for whatever reason, my soil test results did not include the amount of nitrogen. I notice on the soil report that nitrate nitrogen is listed but there is no info about it in the results column. I was thinking that NITRATE nitrogen would be something that applied to synthetic fertilizers moreso than organic... but I really don't know. So, I don't know how much nitrogen is already there. Do I need to find out? How do I find out (soil test is done by Clemson University). The only other unknowns are sulfer & percentage of organic matter because apparently they require separate tests. The PH is 5.9 with a buffer ph of 7.75 and Clemson does not recommend liming at this level (although it is borderline). This test was taken prior to putting in my garden (first one this plot) and I added black kow, blood meal(5lbs/100sqft), greensand 10 lbs/100sqft)and rock phosphate 10 lbs/100sqft)at levels designed to bring a medium or low reading up to high. So, I'm thinking that because my garden was so BAD this go round that all of these additional ammendments are still there. So, don't really think an additional soil test is necessary but I'm probably going to get one anyone more or less out of curiousity. Kimmser- I did the settling out test and mostly what I have is sand. Very little organic matter and clay. Thus the reason for trying hairy vetch. I'm also guessing that there is little bacterial activity because of the lack of organic matter (thus the reason for thinking most of the "blood meal" is still there. Drains well, smells fine, no earthworms. Yeah, it needs some work, I'm starting to understand why. Peter- Interesting on the addition of rye to suppress the weeds. I take it the hairy vetch is slow to cover, I thought it would do ok on it's own. Based on what I've said above, would you agree that a nitrogen source is probably not necesary. 4 years for a soil test seems reasonable to me. Sure would like to get to where I don't need them at all to understand how my soils doing. Another apparent misconception on my part is that I'm going to be able to plant my spring garden in the plot that I plant the hairy vetch in now (winter cover crop). I was thinking I'd till it in a few weeks before last frost and everything would be better for my spring/summer garden. What I'm hearing you say is I probably need to wait. Trying to come up with a plan that I can rotate out spring/summer & fall/winter cover crops with spring/summer and fall/winter gardens. Attempting to figure how many separate plots I need to take things in and out of rotation so that I can get the organic matter in while also cutting down on disease because I rotate. What's the worse case scenario if I don't include the cereal rye with the vetch? So the cereal rye actually kills weed/vegetable seeds? Certainly didn't know that. I thought it was just weed suppression because it grew fast and got ahead of all the weeds thus shading them out and or choking them or something. Is the weed seed killer nature specific to cereal rye or is it particular of all the ryes? What about mixing in some sort of clover vs the rye? My brains spinning already when it comes to scheduling. Thanks for reminding me about the innoculant. Keep forgetting about it. Sounds like it's pretty important. Is there any info out there about how an innoculant could potentially be bad for your soil? It's not introducing something to it that hasn't been there in the past? Thanks all!

A few days ago I pulled all the hairy vetch from a 4' by 12' bed where I'll soon be planting tomatoes. I had planted the vetch in the Fall of 2008, as a cover crop. All I know is that the kale and zucchini and mesclun and whatever else I had in that bed last year all grew really well after planting that hairy vetch. I never replanted any, but this year the vetch came back much much bigger than it had when I pulled it last year. So, it seems to be helping, and it seems to be invasive, but maybe not such a bad kind of invasive. Last year during the growing season I had to reach down and pull out a few little vetch vines, once in a while. No big deal. This year I'm going to use Ruth Stout's method of mulching with 8" of rotting hay, so even if the vetch tries to come back stronger it won't make it through the thickness.