Hi lonmower, Congrats on your Fava bean. Glad to see you back and reporting on your fall cover crops. As you know, I have been of the opinion that as of MID OCTOBER, it was too late to start any cover crop from seeds.But I could be proven wrong. I mixed some fall leaves in my beds and covered them with plastic, to keep the rain our and hopefully to keep it warmer for the micro organisms to stay active. I won't remove the cover untilll April 014. Anyway, we have had one of the coldest Decembers on record around PNW. However, October and November were normal. Our weather is good for cold crop, BUT I think you have to start them early so they can get them established by early October. Otherwise they will just hang in there. I am looking forward for spring cool crop. And for that I have built a cold frame where I can germinate seeds early. This is going to be a new experiment for me here. It is quite a challenge to germinate seeds in cold soil. But once the cool crops germinate(indoor , cold frame ..), they will grow in cool spring weather.

Yes..........definitely do not plant Nettles and Comfrey. If you do you will be sorry for the rest of your life. Comfrey tea is very good. If you have a large property go out on the back forty and plant Comfrey in a fence row. Investigate to find a leaf supply. Use them for so called free mulch. My supply is three city blocks away at the Township yard waste collection place. They are all free. Tomatoes are heavy feeders. If you can put a gallon of compost in each planting hole you may have enough. I would consider purchasing a bag of organic fertilizer with low numbers like 4-2-4. One handful when planting and a top dressing of a handful when the first bloom is set. It sounds to me like you are planting a whole lot of tomatoes. If you are heavy eaters figure just two plants to each member of your family. Twice that will give you between ten and twenty pints to freeze. These are minimal estimates. I would hate to see you needing to hire help just to pick them all. You are definitely thinking the right direction. Without some kind of cover crop or cover mulch you may be thinking to big. I have never used a cover crop while growing. Any cover mulch will work but the supply of material should be close by at the time you need it. My personal experience is that if I do not have huge pile of material waiting it just does not get done. That is when the trouble begins. Hope this gives you some things to consider. I like the original question. Your care to tell us where you are in process helped me to think I know where you are heading. I hope you get several other responses from which you may consider and choose some advise.

I'm impressed at the size of your garden. My entire lawn is only about 4000 sq ft. As a general rule, you can add anything that has lived to a compost pile. That includes all of the items you listed. Shredding stuff will speed the process, but in the end, it will all compost. The easiest way to start compost is to just start piling the things in the same place. If you can shred first, that will help, but it isn't necessary. I use a plastic bin, but many people build bins with pallets or fencing. Some people just use free standing piles. I use a shovel and a bulb auger to mix my compost, but I've got a fairly small bin (about 10-15 cu ft). If you have a large bin/pile, you may want to use some kind of attachment on the tractor to turn it (I have no experience in this, but I'm sure there's something that would work for you). You want to keep it moist (but not wet). I wouldn't cover it with plastic unless you have a lot of rain and it is getting too wet. In that case, I might cover it loosely. But you don't want to restrict airflow. If it starts to smell, it is probably either too wet or it has too much nitrogen. The solution for either of these is to add more high carbon matter (such as leaves, shredded paper, cardboard, sawdust, etc) and to turn it. If it isn't heating up, it probably needs more nitrogen (manure, coffee grounds, green leaves). And/or it needs to be turned. And/Or it is either too wet or too dry. I've had batches of compost finish in a couple of weeks and I've had batches that took months. When I was a kid, we had sort of a perpetual compost pile. It was never turned and we just dug compost from the bottom when we needed some finished stuff.

Thanks....for the responses. Big question> are cover crops really worth it? I compost and have lots of worms and add 2-3 in of compost to all my beds every year. For those that plant cover crops, do you notice a difference?