Green Manure - Protect Soil From Rain
by John Yazo
Green manure crops,also called cover crops, are one of those beneficial organic gardening tasks that we should all do, but usually can't find the time to do it in the home garden. Cover crops serve many benefits in our gardens, from the attraction of pollinating insects to improving soil structure. Green manures are crops that can be cultivated throughout the growing season when there is available space.
For most, the end of the growing season, late summer to early fall is the best time, if not the only time there is empty space in the backyard garden. Green manures planted late season still have many benefits to serve. They are a method of erosion control, the damaging effects occur to the soil from heavy rains in the spring, or snow melt runoff.
Heavy rains can be very destructive to a gardens soil structure when not protected. Cover crops soften the pounding that occurs with heavy rainfall on the soil, reducing compaction and the loss of nitrates that leach from the soil. There are different nitrogen fixing green manures like alfalfa, and winter rye that grow quickly and breakdown easily to improve the soils structure.
Deep rooted green manures loosen and aerate the soil, along with extracting minerals from deep in the soil, bringing them closer to the surface for shallow rooted plants to benefit from. When cover crops are planted between your main crops, they can be an excellent method of weed control, while at the same time create a natural habitat for beneficial predators to call home in your garden, like beetles and frogs or toads.
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