Cover Crops in the Home Garden - Ep. 318

Every empty bed in your garden is either growing something for you or growing weeds and losing topsoil. Cover crops are how you make sure it's the first one.

In this episode, we get into why cover crops work in both in-ground beds and raised planters, which ones perform best when you sow them in fall, and which ones are worth a spot in your rotation come spring. We'll look at nitrogen-fixing legumes like crimson clover and hairy vetch, soil-building grasses like winter rye and oats, and fast-growing summer options like buckwheat that can turn a bare bed around in a matter of weeks. Then we'll cover how to actually terminate a cover crop, whether that's mowing, crimping, tarping, or letting winter do the work for you, so it feeds your soil instead of becoming a weed problem of its own.

Let's dig in!

References and Resources:

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• University of Maryland Extension — Cover Crops For Gardens: umd.edu/resource/cover-crops-gardens
• University of Maryland Extension — Offing Cover Crops for Weed Suppression: Featuring the Roller Crimper and Other Mechanical Contraptions: umd.edu/resource/offing-cover-crops-weed-suppression
• University of New Hampshire Extension — Cover Cropping for the Home Garden [fact sheet]: unh.edu/resource/cover-cropping-home-garden-fact-sheet
• University of Missouri Integrated Pest Management, Missouri Environment & Garden — Cover Crops Improve Garden Soil: missouri.edu/meg/2014/9/Cover-Crops-Improve-Garden-Soil
• Oregon State University Extension — Buckwheat Makes a Good Summer Cover Crop for Gardens: oregonstate.edu/news/buckwheat-makes-good-summer-cover-crop-gardens
• Cornell Cooperative Extension Vegetable Program, Cover Crop Guide for NY Growers — Buckwheat as a Summer Cover Crop for Weed Suppression: org/blog/buckwheat-as-a-summer-cover-crop-for-weed-suppression
• UF/IFAS Extension Duval County — Cover Crop Termination: What Do I Do When It's Over?: ifas.ufl.edu/duvalco/2025/09/15/cover-crop-termination-what-do-i-do-when-its-over
• Purdue University Center for New Crops and Plants Products — Hairy Vetch: purdue.edu/newcrop/afcm/vetch.html
• USDA Agricultural Research Service — Crimson Clover Cover Crop Fact Sheet (PDF): usda.gov/ARSUserFiles/60100500/FactSheets/FS04e.pdf

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