whatever you do do not use winter rye. You will be pulling it up all next year. I planted fava bean last year, mixed with winter wheat and hairy vetch. The fava beans were far and away the most successful. I used bell fava beans this year which are adaptable to poor soils. If you inoculate before planting, the plant will fix nitrogen in the roots. Planting fava beans is extraordinarily simple. Just broad cast the stuff and rake it in.

Thanks everyone - great information. Gloria, I downloaded the catalog you mentioned and it does have a lot of good information. I do compost, and I'll be working compost into the veg garden this weekend, but the rest of the garden has awful clay soil and can use all the help I can give it. I thought if there's something easy I could plant that would actually grow in the winter, that might be a good solution. Steve, I'm glad to hear that pulling works just fine. I'd probably pull the plants and then fork them under, or trench them like you mentioned. My veg garden in particular is very small - only 12'x4', so hand-tilling is not a problem. Dan, I haven't heard of Excelsior, but I'll check it out. Thanks again, folks.

beebooks (5): cereal rye is a great cover, but it usually comes back strong early in spring when it will provide stiff competition for your vegetables. For me (Southeast Michigan) it works best if its incorporated deep, and then waiting a month before planting small-seeded vegetables, although you can safely plant potatoes, fava beans, and other large seeded plants. White clover can work, but you need to chop it into the top few inches of the soil in spring; don't expect it to fix nitrogen however, too late for that. How about the option of planting some vegetables that will over-winter, like fava beans, garlic, and lettuce-under-a-row cover? Another thing: I understand that incorporation is a stiff chore, but it does build up live carbon in the soil, which is never bad. Regards, Peter.

I also have clay soil. Clay and limestone. It's been a process trying to amend with compost. I picked up 10 yards this past spring that I got on sale ($20/yd). That's a large expense to try on an annual basis and am attempting to grow cover crops this year. I'm growing fava bean, hulless oats, crimson clover, and hairy vetch. I would love it if I could improve my soil by next spring this way. If anyone has experience with growing cover crops in clay hopefully they'll share some experience with us. I want to start on my front yard next and would love if I could just throw seeds out and have everything grow without any more intervention from me but my guess would be that tilling might be a minimum requirement for getting the cover crops started.