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!

One of the primary benefits of any cover crop is its contribution to the organic matter in the soil as well as any additional nutrients it might contribute. To take proper advantage of this, the crop must be tilled in or at least cut and left in place to compost - if you remove it, you are removing both the organic matter as well as the nutrients, i.e., the nitrogen fixing root nodules. Alfalfa is often recommended to be planted to help loosen heavy soils because of its deep root penetration. Be sure to select an annual variety if used as a cover crop. Attra has an excellent discussion of various cover crops, their contribution to the soil and appropriateness in various areas. Here is a link that might be useful: Attra - cover crops

Ezzirah, If you are going to switch to no-till gardening, you wouldn't need a tiller and, if you use a tiller, you're really not doing no-till gardening, so I'm not sure how to answer this question. When I did no-till gardening our last three years in Texas, I double dug the soil the first year and amended it, built my raised beds above grade level on the double-dug beds by bringing in a mix that was 50% sandy loam and 50% compost, and did not rototill anything. With a no-till garden that has a cover crop planted in it, you can hand-dig the cover crop, although that partially defeats one of the main tenets of no-till gardening, which is to disturb the soil as little as possible. Or, you can pull out the cover crop and then place it on top of the soil surface so it can decompose, or you can place sheet plastic over the cover crop a couple of weeks before planting time and let the sun bake the cover crop to death. You also could just cut down the cover crop very close to the ground, leave the cut portions on top of the ground to decompose and plant through the stubble. This works better if you are transplanting transplants into the stubble area, or sowing large seeds like beans or corn. It wouldn't work very well with small-seeded crops. I have a rototiller and a small cultivator that is, essentially, a mini-tiller and I generally use them only when breaking ground and adding organic matter the very first year. After that, I just use handtools and try to turn over the soil as little as possible. Dawn