The long summer of vegetable gardening can leave your soil in need of some rejuvenation, a perfect job for cover crops. Also known as “green manure,” cover crops are a natural and easy way to ...

Cover crops, also known as green manure, play a crucial role in sustainable gardening by improving soil structure, enhancing moisture retention, and suppressing weeds.

Whether you’re a seasoned gardener or just starting out, integrating cover crops into your late fall gardening routine can yield remarkable benefits for your soil and plants.

In spring use your mower or weed whip to cut the cover crop to the ground. You can till the residue into the soil at that time or cover the area with a black tarp or weed barrier for at least 2 weeks.

Certain cover crops can help control pests, such as the mustard plant, which controls harmful nematodes. Below the soil, legumes — plants in the Fabaceae family — fix nitrogen.

Planting ground cover in fields between cash crop growing seasons is an effective way to prevent farmland from losing soil carbon from erosion, a factor that’s underestimated in considering the ...

A field planted with cereal rye, one of the most common cover crops in Iowa. Photo by Ally Larson/Iowa State University. AMES, Iowa – Planting ground cover in fields between cash crop growing seasons ...

Advisers who reported that they learned about cover crops on the job rather than through formal academic or training channels preferred training sessions (63.9%) and webinars (57.4%) for learning ...

While cover crops modestly increase soil carbon, the reduction in erosion is a separate benefit. Globally, cover crops could reduce soil carbon erosion by 25%, with a 20% reduction in the central U.S.

As climate change threatens farmers’ ability to produce the world ’ s food, researchers and environmental advocates think they have a solution: playing in the dirt. How farming could become ...

Cover crops are a wide range of plants that can help ward off weeds, ... Customers line up to buy produce from the De La Mesa Farms booth at the Proctor Farmers Market on Aug. 10 near Tacoma.