Winter rye cover crop
The prize for most cold
hardy annual in most gardens goes to rye. Not only will the
plants grow during warm spells throughout the winter, they'll germinate
right down to one degree above freezing.
With that exciting data
revving me up, I might have gone a little overboard on my rye
cover crop planting,
making it more of a commitment than an experiment. I sent Mark to
the feed store with "10
pounds of rye seeds" on the list, and he came back with a 50 pound bag
--- I guess there weren't enough farmers buying smaller quantities to
make it worth their while to break apart a bag. So I planted and
planted and planted, filling up about half the vegetable garden, gaps
in the forest garden, and even a bit of bare ground in a chicken
pasture. Yes, I used all 50 pounds.
The rye seedlings look
beautiful on frosty mornings, but I'll be in quite a bind if the plants
aren't easily killable. I planned out my garden rotation early to
make sure I'd have non-rye spaces for all of the earlier spring
plantings, but I'll need those rye beds by June 15 at the latest.
Keep your fingers crossed!
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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I tested winter rye in my Maine garden last winter. When I was getting ready to plant, I let my chickens turn the plots over, tilling in the cover crop and the soil looked great. Just don't wait until the crop goes to seed.
PS I just received my chicken nipples and will be making my heated waterer today!