I have not tried a cover crop after planting fruit trees, but I have used cover crops to prepare my red clay soil for fruit trees. I haven't done a side by side comparison of trees grown with and without such preparation, but I can tell you that the effect on the soil is dramatic. Last August I killed a 8'X24' section of grass with Roundup, then a few days later planted the "soil builder mix" (45% Bell Beans, 15% BioMaster Peas, 10% Dunsdale Peas; 10% Purple Vetch, 5% Lana Vetch; 5% Common Vetch; 10% Cayuse Oats), which I covered with half an inch or an inch of compost. By October, it was 3 feet tall. Normally, if I stand on a garden fork in my lawn, it penetrates an inch or two. That's standing on it with two feet (I'm ~210#) In October, after a couple months of cover crop growth, I could easily plunge it in all the way. I've had the same experience with a cowpea/rye mix. An advantage of mixes is that different plants have different rooting patterns, the combination of which will break up the soil more thoroughly. For example, combining something with a deep tap root with a plant that has a broader spreading more fibrous root system will more thoroughly invade the soil with roots. I can't comment specifically on fava beans, but in general, cover crops are the real deal when it comes to loosening red clay soil. I also don't know if they are as effective on that gray caliche soil I've heard others talk about. Alex

Murraysmom, I may go back and check on her again. Where do I go, the courthouse? I did let the person know I went to the cemetery and looked and I have some pictures of the place. No response yet from the person. I also am looking at a couple others, although, they both seem to be on the outskirts of our county, quite a ways away. I think I'll find out where they are exactly first before I go hunting again. This cemetery was small but it still took a while for five of us to walk it and check every headstone. We may have missed a few too. One of them appears to be on private property, on a farm. So, what do you do, just walk up to the house and ask to look in their graveyard? Oh, and I found the most wonderful peaches on the way home. They were grown by Amish people according to the lady selling them. They were big, juicy and the best peaches I remember having since I lived in AZ and my neighbors brought over two bags from their backyard. It's really beautiful out in that area of KY, so a very pretty drive home.

Definitely watermelon. When it is good, it is very good, and when it is bad, it is horrid. Yes, for some reason not enough warm days in MI for good watermelon, at least that has been my experience. I've had some good honeydew and cantaloupe back in the day but not sure about now. Stopped buying the stuff at the store, just a waste, and haven't found a good farm source. Simplifying living plants and breeding them for corporate needs seems to be the wave of the future for "biotechnology." That's going to be the biotech revolution and I'm afraid human brains are puny compared to nature, (or God if you're so inclined) when it comes to the task of "designing" plants. We used to embrace local breeds but with centralization of production, who cares about all that. Don't really think the "local foods" movement is strong enough to challenge the relentless economics of modern agriculture. The joys of diverse flavorful produce will be relegated to a choice few hobbyists. If you want to read a great treatise on this, read, "Epitaph for a Peach" by David Masumoto. As a side note, I used to run a maple syrup operation and one year the local TV station decided to do a "taste test" with kids for maple syrup against Mrs. Butterworth's. The adults on the crew who had all grown up eating maple syrup said that the kids would prefer it, but we warned them, we knew better. Mrs. Butterworth's won hands down, unanimous for all three kids. Maple syrup has a definitive taste, Mrs. Butterworth's has hardly ANY taste, definitely "designed" to offend no one. One has to develop a taste for maple syrup, and there's a lot of context to it, other than just the taste. I think we would be surprised how limited the palette's are of most people in our culture today because we are not like "most people." But it is very much out there, no one minds that things have "no taste" because they have never known "taste." One cannot love and preserve what one does not know.

sheilaaus122 - While I was struggling with the first chapter of The Sound and the Fury I did look online to find out just what the hell I was reading. That definitely helped. It was still a challenge but once I understood who the characters were it all made much more sense. I suppose a "real reader" would just plow through and try to figure it out themselves. I didn't mind my cheat and I think it also explains, in part at least, why the book was not well received when published but praised later. Finish the book. You are so close. I have no plans to read anything else by Faulkner. ;-) BTW - When I showed DH what I was reading his reaction was: "The only good thing I can say about Faulkner is that it's not Dickens." haha He's right. Sort of. I'd certainly pick up another Faulkner before anything by Dickens.