I'm sorry I forgot to say what's in the mixes. In the first picture for FALL: This mix is comprised of winter rye, field peas, ryegrass, crimson clover and hairy vetch. Vigorous late summer growth provides winter erosion control. The peas, clover and ryegrass will winter kill to provide organic matter and soil cover. The hairy vetch and winter rye will regrow in the spring to provide nutrients for crops to utilize. For the Spring Mix , in the second picture: Use as a green manure to enrich the garden with both nitrogen and organic matter. The mix contains 60% field peas, 25% oats, and 15% hairy vetch. Designed for spring sowing, but it may be sown anytime early spring through late summer. Our backyard is part of the Rocky Mountain , literally! And so to tame patches of it, since it is not level, our son weed-whacked the rag weeds and other unwanted last fall, and since my Fall mix didn't arrive until too late(didn't want it all eaten by the wild pheasants and other wild residents-might have to pellet the seeds with fine clay powder because of that), I will sow the Spring mix very early on patches maybe 10x20's on the South facing incline for additonal gardening places and let the mix do the weeding out and the fertilizing and the softening of the dirt, and the composting, to get them ready for vegetables and flowers for the year after. I am planning to always have a patch of the mixes growing for seeds, and to rotate them from one patch to the other, and intersperse their plantings with my regulars when ever possible. Bon, bref, I've been long winded,as usual. Chris

Certainly you want to mow or cut the cover crop at least two weeks before setting transplants. My incorporated winter rye grain and hairy vetch appear to be mostly decoposed after two or three weeks in the soil in March. As the cover crop grows you're getting more biomass, both above and below ground, and the legumes reach their zenith in terms of nitrogen fixation in their bloom stage. I always try to cut my cover crop before seeds set. That way they do not reseed and become weeds. In my area soil temperature is also a consideration. If the winter has been cold the cover crop, having been a "living mulch," will keep the soil from warming. As my rye decomposes it also has an allelopathic effect. That is to say that for a couple of weeks as it decays it inhibits the germination of small seeds. I guess that in a long-winded way I wanted to say that you want to let the crop grow as long as possible without allowing reseeding but not so long that the decomposition of said crop has an ill effect on the following crops.

I was leaving the posting to those with a more appropriate climate but... I mainly grow daikon to eat (makes great pickles and kimchee), but it grows like mad and I always end up watching some get pretty huge. I'm in sandy soil, so breaking it up isn't an issue, but they certainly would! In temperate climates like mine, it's generally recommended to chop large roots off at ground-level and leave to rot in the ground. I presume in your climate you just let the cold do the work! My only concern would be a brassica cover-crop mucking up rotation. I don't rotate as my garden's tiny, but it could be worth factoring in.

Alfalfa is tops. Rodale did tests years ago and alfalfa was 3 to 4 time the natural nitrogen producer of any other plant tested. Other legumes that did well were white and red clover and vetch. There are a few others. I find it's hard to find alfalfa seed from normal retail sources, so I get mine from a local farmer who is glad to give me all the little bit of seed I need in exchange for some nice tangerines and some dates we grow. There are a lot of deferent varieties of alfalfa. Be sure to get one that does well in your area and takes lots of cutting. The local ag. agent can help you with selecting a variety. But even if you can't get the perfect variety, most any variety that grows in your are will do fine. Be sure not to cut alfalfa to short. It's not like grass. A mature stand needs a fairly good stalk above ground to sprout back from when cut. I live in a very different climate. I grow mine from fall to spring. I mix alfalfa and winter rye seed about 1 part alfalfa to 3 parts rye by weight. that is about equal parts by seed count. I scratch these in about double thick because I have a HUGE number of quail and dove come in and feast on my seed, and then the fresh tender greens. I have seen as many as 8 covey of quail, each 10 to 15 in number and 300 dove on our tiny little 1 acre date garden. Well, its small when you put 400 birds on it at once. but the quail also scratch for bugs so they are doing their part to help clean up and keep bug out. A little trick to keep them from eating too much from the field so that they don't make bald spots. I put some cracked corn or chicken scratch at the ends of the field so they eat that and leave my planted seed alone. As summer stats warming up I let it go to seed then cut it all to the ground and rake it into windrows as part of the mulch beds. this is what my roes look like. you can do adjust it on a small scale. mmTmmCCCCCmmTmmCCCCCmmTmm Were T is a tree or a date palm, m is mulch beds, and C is orchard crop. In most cases the orchard crop is rye and alfalfa mix, although I do use selected native weeds too. Notice I said selected! local weeds. Lambs quarter, goat nut, are good greens for salad, and a couple of local flowering or fragrant beauties, dye weed (perennial legume), verbena, and desert primrose. Yes we have a native primrose out here in the crazzy hot desert! It doesn't grow every year, only grows when the rain is just right. But I digress. Some folks like to keep a more perennial crop like alfalfa alone of vetch so they don't need to reseed each year. With alfalfa, if you want it to carry over and grow the next year, you need to leave some leaf and green as winter starts, and not cut it all off. Note too, that after 3 years of heavy mulching (say one foot thick or more) you will be able to reduce the amount to half as much, as your soil will have matured and developed a very healthy profile.