Winter Cover Crops / Early Frost

Hi all!

Up until now, I've always been a deep mulch guy for my market gardens. Late last year I purchased a plot in South Korea and decided to experiment with more living pathways and cover crops in one 120' x 30' plot.

As you can see, the white clover did great in two pathways (I stuck with deep mulch for my other pathways for now).

The climate analogue here is much different from what I was used to in Canada. Much longer growing season, etc. Pretty much everything has been harvested by now, however, save for some winter squash, Korean radish, and cabbage for kimchi.

I brushed the mulch off and broadforked (or garden clawed) the rows now without plants (careful to keep anything rooted that was still photosynthesizing) and sowed winter cover crops (crimson clover, hairy vetch, and winter rye). Germination rate was great where I broadcasted early....and then we got hit with an early cold snap (apparently earliest in the past 60 years in this region).

So now I have this situation. I don't think the plants are established enough to survive the winter. In some areas, where I broadcasted as recently as a week ago, nothing is coming up. Forecasted daytime highs are great this coming week, but night lows are still dangerously close to zero.

Here's my question: give it more time (but that means the soil is bare longer, which I don't feel good about), or abandon the experiment for this year and mulch it all now.

You'll see in the pics that in certain rows / mounds I simply raked seeds in, in others I used a sprinkle of straw / pine needle mulch, and in others a sprinkling of finished compost. The mounds were used for the three sisters this year (with great success). You'll notice pole beans vines still growing out of the mounds (now without their trellises. Left them in since they're still greeen, but did aerate the soil a bit and broadcast cover crop seed.

Thanks in advance for any advice!!

Nice looking garden!

Since you're not sure if the crops are mature enough or not to survive winter it might be worth mulching only the bare spots to give the plants more time. If they live, great. If they die, just add some more mulch there.

I don't know about the clover or vetch, but I grow rye every year and I guarantee it will be fine. I've planted it when we're getting consistent freezing temperatures every night and it just takes longer to germinate. One little blade like you've got can survive winter no problem. Mine often gets eaten by turkeys over winter whenever there's minimal snow cover and it bounces back from that too.

I would leave it, if you smother them in mulch you will never know if they would make it or not so you'll have exactly the same issue next year.

Same problem right now a long way from you in Slovenia. In my experience crimson clover usually looks like a basket case during winter but bounces back strongly in the spring. Won't be a lot of green during winter though since it was sown late. Rye should do fine. No experience with vetch.

Are you still in South Korea? I'm also from Canada and recently moved to South Korea to start farming.