Don't Leave Your Raised Beds Empty! Do This Instead...

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Super cheap buckwheat seed tip: buy whole buckwheat at the grocery store (in the dry beans section). It sprouts!

Last October I planted garlic, then scattered the soil builder peas and oats, plus a few handfuls of home saved mustard seed, and spread an inch of compost over top. Everything grew and grew until mid January here, where we got down to 15°. About 95% of the cover crop died off, which i just mulched over with shredded leaves. The garlic grew right through it all, and gave us the biggest heads we've grown so far (even though conventional wisdom keeps saying garlic doesn't like having neighbors). It was totally worth it!

It get 35 below zero F where I live before wind chill, so I cover crop with snow and ice. Guarantee 100 percent weed stopper.

I’m up in the northern plains. Things freeze pretty early and stay that way. So in the fall when I’m emptying my patio pots, I replant the whole pot into my empty raised beds. It could be flowers, basil, hot pepper plants, a patio tomato that seems to still be kickin. And then the whole thing dies and it buried under the snow for several months. In the spring I mulch it all in. I am not allowed a compost heap where I live, so this was the next best thing.

Pea's and Oat's is my favourite cover crop band ...

oh god I saw the hairy vetch and immediately went NOPE. I live in northern ontario and that stuff is super invasive - i'd never put it in a bed intentionally lol

I did winter rye last year, and my garden this year was ridiculous! Giant flowers, fruits, and vegetables compared to last year. It was a bit of a challenge to cut and till in a small raised bed, but it really worked so well!

Cover crops also force a bed to rest and forces alternating crops. I find seasonal cover crops to be the most effective at building soil structure and nutrients. Way too few gardeners use cover crops 🌻

I love the butterfly cameos while Kevin's speaking 🥰🦋🧡