Last weekend, we cleared all of the garden except for the sweet potatoes. James did some welding, which is pretty impressive, so he could mow, mow again, and till. The wind picked up in the afternoon, so despite my original plan to plan a cover crop immediately, I had to wait a few days.
Our hope is to help eliminate some of the weed growth we have in the fall and spring, as well as to enrich our soil with nitrogen fixing legumes.
I planted a fall manure mix that included hair vetch, winter rye, ryegrass, peas, and clover, and then overplanted with mustard. I read (which means I have a good chance of being wrong) that mustard roots grow deep, even in clay, so they may help break up our hard soil. The recommended tool was a seed drill, but I had to stick to the seed spreader, which is what I have. I can live with uneven seed distribution.
Our hope is to help eliminate some of the weed growth we have in the fall and spring, as well as to enrich our soil with nitrogen fixing legumes.
In the end, the challenge was keeping the pesky guineas out of the seed. I finally set up a hose to spray/mist all over the area, and that worked. Now we've had a few days of rain, and I can already see sprouting!
In the coming week, I'll try to lay out the drip hose again in an unplanted area for the garlic crop!
Until next time, remember, this is not paradise. It's Purgatory Ranch.
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