"Why" Clover & Green Manure

"Why?" is a constant part of my vocabulary.  "To make little girls like you ask questions," tended to be thrown my way often.  For me, if I can understand the why then the motivation, follow through and boldness to experiment follows.

The protection and the development of our soil is not the most romantic or easily recognized activity but is the foundation of all else gardening.

I've been researching the difference between Red Clover and Alfalfa.  While they do have differing properties they provide amazing benefit to our soil.  I knew that the nitrogen that legumes produce in their roots enters the soil when the plant dies and recharges the soil.  What I didn't know is how Cover crops such as Alfalfa, Red Clover and Perennial Ryegrass  can also reduce plant-parasitic nematodes!  

Two Good Resources:

 

"Effect of Cover Crops Alfalfa, Red Clover, and Perennial Ryegrass on Soybean Cyst
Nematode Population and Soybean and Corn Yields in Minnesota"

USDA "Soil Quality-Agronomy:  Cover and Green Manure Crop Benefits to Soil Quality"

The USDA states that, "Quality is a critical factor in the management of natural resources, and
the protection or enhancement of soil quality is the key component of all resource management assistance activities in the NRCS."

Cover crops can be grown on parts of our beds or entire beds.  They can be grown, cut down and added to our compost.  

 This compost amends our soil to add organic matter and "biomass" and creates a perfect environment for all of those microbes to reproduce and do their thing.  Worms build in population and weave a network through the soil for water and oxygen throughout the beds.

Leaving the cover crops growing for a period of time will provide protection from weeds, erosion, compaction and disease.  Those wonderful roots pushing deep into the soil creates deep loam perfect for growing amazing gardens.

 

Cover Crops

Our odd weather patterns this year has driven me to re-think some things.  Some questions I'm asking:  How do I better protect my soil?  Are there ways to better utilize the space I have to reduce water needs?  What hardscaping do I need to do for next year?  Checking out pots and items soon to be on clearance; what would be helpful?

Another raised bed needs to be built to take advantage of some shade!  Rain barrels and gutters to catch some of this precious water.   Creating some type of cover for some of my beds.  Using more vertical planting and studying permaculture.  Finally, planting cover crops and rotating them.

After reading, "Grow Cover Crops For the Best Garden Soil" by Harvey Ussery in the Mother Earth News Spring 2012, I'm ready.  He says, "Consider cover crops your most important crops, because the requirements for abundant food crops-building soil fertility, improving soil texture, suppressing weeds, and inhibiting disease and crop damaging insects-can be best met by the abundant use of cover crops, season after season."

"I know this," I say to myself shaking my head.  Growing up with a rich heritage of conservation on a ranch/farm and remembering tilling up the alfalfa to plant for wheat and planting alfalfa into the old wheat fields.  I even studied this cycle of regeneration.  

So why have I not considered alfalfa and other clovers and cover crops before?

So I dug up a random clover plant in the ditch and took it home placing it into my worn out lettuce soil.  Next step is stopping by the seed store to pick up some cow and field peas, buckwheat to plant now and winter peas and oats to plant closer to fall.

Today's forcast...108.  This week looks to be all over 100.  We were blessed with some rain last night but our dry soil needs a good soaking.

ReThinking Water-Lessons from Midnight Water Changing

Irrigation was part of my growing up.  Drawing water from the Belle Fourche river across the gravel road and into ditches.  First the ditches were dirt with siphon tubes and moving to cement ditches with gates.  Flood irrigation involved moving water from one part of the river through small ditches in the corn field or down the alfalfa fields and back into the river.

Big rubber waders and shovels in had we would "help" repair dikes to keep the water going to where it was supposed to do.

As we grew, we had to go and change the water in the night which scared me to death.  The coyotes would howl and the hair on my neck would be on end as it seemed like they had to be right over the next hill.

Moving water fascinates me.  The magic and the satisfaction of watching the water soak deeply into the soil providing the moisture for the corn and the alfalfa and watermelons to turn into food.  

My neighbors today will tell you that I'm always out playing in the water.  "Ditching" my garden and laying soaker hose.  Making sure that the water has soaked deeply into the ground.

The cost of water is increasing at an alarming rate.  Currently, this summer began 5 weeks early and has been the warmest on record leaving me watering continuously.  Continuing to do what I've done would be stupid so am seeking my husband's ability to design and invent to begin thinking about water storage and conservation.  

My Baby Steps:

1.  Gather supplies such as barrels and five gallon buckets.

2.  Salvage cement bricks and old hoses.

3. Seek out mulching options.

4.  Observe yard and draw new beds.

5.  Research row covers.

 

Record Breaking Heat

My tummy starts to tremble when I hear the word drought.  To a ranching/farming family drought was a terrifying word.  Animals and crops would be effected.  Worry etched our parents faces.

This is the warmest spring in Nebraska since record keeping began.  Our ground is beginning to harden with the lack of rain.  Our growing season began about six weeks early so gardening has been a challenge.  

Sprinklers provides just the top layer with a sip but what the ground really needs is a good soaking.

Nebraska faced a drought just a few years ago that emptied lakes, streams and rivers and we do not want to go back to that.

So as my ancestors have done for years in this wildly unpredictable heartland...I will adapt.  

The hostas that grew so beautifully under the tree until the tree had to come down will have to be moved and if it doesn't survive then it will be sacrificed to more practical plants.  Water has to be conserved and used wisely.

I'm in the process of cutting old hoses, adding the ends so watering is more targeted.  Being intentional with extra mulch and care my plants.

New plans for landscaping that will work with our semi-arid environment better are being scribbled in my journal as I plan for more beds and different varieties.

What is organic anyway?

I've been thinking about the rage of organic gardening...which I am all for.  But does it seem that sometimes we call it organic if it comes from a bag?  We buy organic vegies and throw away the peels while buying bags of "organic fertilizers."  

We rake and clip and throw away needles, pine cones and leaves to send to the trash while buying mulch. We steer away from manure because of its messiness.

Are we taking away organic from organic?  Do we make organic to sterile and too difficult? 

 Organic according to the dictionary is "relating to or derived from organic material.  Produced without pesticides, herbicides and fertilized."

It can also be defined as the "continuous or natural development" and a "relation between elements of something such that they fit together harmoniously as necessary parts of a whole."

My definition of organic is, "to work with what we have.  To see the relation and connection between the elements around us.  To get out of the way of the natural processes."

What do you think?