Planting Clover

I live in Oregon and want to plant clover for a cover crop that will add nitrogen to my soil. I didn't get a chance to plant it last fall..can it still be planted before I start my spring garden?

I think it depends on how you want to use the clover - whether you are planning to till it in or if you want to grow it as a ground cover. You might not have enough time to grow it to a size to be tilled in and then plant your spring crops. If you are growing as a nitrogen producing summer ground cover that would be a different story. We're planning to plant several kinds of clover in spring here in coastal BC, but as a permanent ground cover as part of a chestnut-based polyculture. We also encourage clovers to grow between plants in the vegetable garden.

According to the planting calendar in my West Coast Seeds catalogue, alsike clover could be planted as early as the start of February but it looks like most of the others should be planted early March. I assume that timing would be for Vancouver. Depending on your elevation etc in Oregon you might be similar, or a little earlier?

I wanted it to till in as well as ground cover to keep the weeds down. It's about 400ft here in elevation. Maybe I should plant it as soon as we get some warmer weather although it will probably get colder after that as it does every year..a tease for spring time. Every thing stays green in the winter here unlike Central and Eastern Oregon where grass etc goes into dormancy and turns brown.

So you're a few 100 miles south but 400 ft higher elevation than the Vancouver location for which those planting dates were given. Grass stays green overwinter in south coastal BC too (well, it's white this morning but already melting; brown in summer), and I imagine the climate zone is probably pretty similar to yours. But here's another idea for figuring this out...

Maybe the easiest way to look at the spring planting dates for clover is to compare them to frost-free dates. In Vancouver the last/first frost dates are March 28 and Nov 5. Alsike clover spring planting dates shown in the planting calendar are early Feb to mid April. So, from about 6 weeks before the last spring frost to about 6 weeks after. Other clovers say mid-March to mid-May, so from about 2 weeks before last frost to 6 weeks after.

I hope this is helping you, it is definitely helping me refine the plan for my plantings this spring! I'm about 2 weeks behind Vancouver for spring frost date, so we'll aim for end of March to mid-May here. The summer drought will be starting by May so the earlier end of the planting window would be better. And if I can keep on top of making seed balls and get them ready in time, our no-till tree-alley plantings will all be going out as polyculture seed balls that contain clover along with other soil builders, forage, and pollinator supports. Clover seed to be planted in the veggie garden will likely just be scratched into the soil as those gardens are prepped and planted.

I guess I have to wait till after the last frost. wanted to do it sooner since as soon as it warms up even for a few days plants want to grow. we had weather in the 50s last week and my tulips are trying to grow but the frost we have now will kill them soon.