Winter cover

[CrealCritter]

Well it's getting about time to clean up the gardens for winter hate to see it coming... but it happens every year.

I tell myself every year I'm going to plant a ground cover but I always get confused about what kind of cover I should sow...

I was thinking about kale for my 25'x50' spring/fall garden but I don't know.. and for my 50'x100' summer I'm totally at lost what I should plant in there.

Any ideas??? Winter wheat maybe??? IDK...

I'm in Southern IL - hardiness zone 6B.

 

[Beekissed]

White dutch clover. Cheap, grows well in the fall, chickens can eat on it when the snow is off and it is a nitrogen fixer. I used to use it on my garden each fall and it germinated quickly, the chickens got to feed on it all fall until snow cover and then again in early spring as the snow melted, it was the first tender green available.

Pic of hen foraging the fall clover planted in garden rows....

 

[CrealCritter]

White dutch clover. Cheap, grows well in the fall, chickens can eat on it when the snow is off and it is a nitrogen fixer. I used to use it on my garden each fall and it germinated quickly, the chickens got to feed on it all fall until snow cover and then again in early spring as the snow melted, it was the first tender green available.

Pic of hen foraging the fall clover planted in garden rows....

Awesome never even thought about White dutch clover. Got an idea how much I would need for 50'x100' - about .12 acre?

Edit: found my answer --->http://sustainableseedco.com/compost-cover-crops/white-dutch-clover.html

 

[milkmansdaughter]

Great link. I got lost there for a few minutes.
I'm thinking we might add some strips of white clover along our creek bank to have an ongoing source of food for pollinators. It sounds like a great addition for what were trying to do long-term here.

 

[Beekissed]

When I arrived here we had very little clover in the meadow, but I frost seeded it in various places two winters in a row, plus planting it in the garden each fall. Then I had to convince Mom to stop mowing so low, so that the clover could reach maturity and blossom and also so the grass could go to seed at least once per season so as to reseed itself better.

Slowly but surely the meadow is growing a more lush and more nutritious crop of greens for the chickens and also a great source of bee food.

It's great nutrition, low growing, and still has great tenderness in the fall.

Here's another link you all may enjoy: https://www.feedipedia.org/

 

[CrealCritter]

When I arrived here we had very little clover in the meadow, but I frost seeded it in various places two winters in a row, plus planting it in the garden each fall. Then I had to convince Mom to stop mowing so low, so that the clover could reach maturity and blossom and also so the grass could go to seed at least once per season so as to reseed itself better.

Slowly but surely the meadow is growing a more lush and more nutritious crop of greens for the chickens and also a great source of bee food.

It's great nutrition, low growing, and still has great tenderness in the fall.

Here's another link you all may enjoy: https://www.feedipedia.org/

That's a really good link - thank you very much I hook marked it so I can study it later. I just wished it we're mobile friendly...

Being a work from home IT Risk and Complience guy... I sit in front of computer all week long because I have too. The last thing I want to do is go back in the office and sit at the computer some more during off hours -:lol