Oats and Clover

Good Morning Permies!

I have half a dozen raised wooden garden beds full of veggies that are starting to die back and I can see bare soil.

This is my first year doing the whole spring to winter cycle of growing and caring for the garden so it has been a big win for me with plenty of learning opportunities.

I am dipping my toe into cover cropping in order to reduce erosion, capture some free nitrogen, and hopefully have some organic matter develop to put back into the soil come spring.

I didn't want to have to worry about termination of cover crops this time around so I did a bunch of research into winterkill crops and decided that a mixture of crimson clover and oats might be right for my application.

Does anybody have any experience in this? Any tips or tricks?

I got the crimson clover down closer to the beginning of august in most of the beds because it is a lower grower and I wasn't worry about it competing with other plants, especially the fact that it is fixing nitrogen. Now that it is the start of September, it is recommended for oats to be put in the ground.

Something neat I found, I can get a big 50lb bag of deer plot oats for the same price of a 10lb bag of 'specialty' cover crop oats. Am I going to use all 50lbs? I doubt it but I am planning on trying to store what I can for future use even if germination drops a little.

Everything is thawing, I don't see any green from the clover but I do see some green from the oats. With some warmer days and less freezing nights, I'll have to see if it has been truly winter killed or if I have to plan on doing some crimping.

Time will tell!

Yeah, I'm getting reports from warmer climes of crocuses blooming etc. We're a month away from that. Bloody winter -- too long. But we're getting warm spells and the days are longer and the sun is higher with some real kick. So at least I can get outside and do *something* in the sun.