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.

Hi, I've grown hairy vetch on a small scale. I have 4x4 raised beds that I use it in. It was very simple to turn it over by hand with a pitch fork. I did cut off the tops first and then as I was turning it in with a pitch fork, I added the tops & just kept turning it over until everything was covered. It does sound as though you have sown yours on open ground in larger amounts, so my method maybe a little more labor intensive for you. I can't think of any other way to do it, except cut the tops off (weedwacker or lawnmower) and then pitchfork time. I assume a broadfork is a large version of a pitchfork. You're going to have a great garden with all that cover crop incorporated, good luck!

Any plant can be used as a green manure, or cover crop. Some make better green manure crops but all could be cover crops. Some plants have properties, alellopathic, that make them more desireable, while other plants may have cost as a factor. But there is no reason you could not use marigolds, or dandelions, as a cover crop, often you might really want to keep what you use from setting seed however.