Cover Cropping: Spring, Fall, or Not At All

Hi all! I need help!

It's my first season in my home garden, and the season is coming to a close here in Pennsylvania. I would like to cover crop this fall or spring, but I can't decide on a plan. If i want to cover crop in the fall, I would need to sow seeds in late September, and I am not sure if some of my crops will  be ready for harvest (sweet potato, delicata squash, watermelon, canteloupe, etc.). I need to terminate some grasses that moved in once my crimson clover pathways died, and I also have a TON of mulch on top of the soil. I was planning on chopping and dropping spent vegetables onto the soil or just letting them overwinter until spring. This means I don't really have any bare soil to sow the seeds into. I could remove the mulch, but that seems like a lot of work.

Option 2 would be to sow a cover crop in the spring, but still the issue of bare soil comes up. I am wondering if anyone else has run into this issue and what some solutions are. It's possible I don't need to cover crop, but I think it would be beneficial. Any opinions or advice would be welcome. THANK YOU!

Sounds to me like you're off to a great start!

It depends!

I would personally only plant a cover crop if I had bare soil or needed the cover crop to build poor soil, mine nutrients etc.. It sounds like too much work like you said unless there is a purpose. All of that mulch you have is probably doing a great job on it's own currently.

In short, plant cover crops when and if it suits your wants and needs!

Sounds like you will be successful whatever you decide.

I believe adding a cover crop to a garden is a good thing because it helps with erosion and weeding.

Whether it is done in the spring or fall depends on if the garden will have bare soil and the preference of the user.

To me it is more important what is used as a cover crop.

In the fall we usually sow winter rye as where I live winter rye will die back when the temperature get warm.

There are several clover varieties so to me research would help pick the right one. I believe some are for fall or spring and some are perennial.

Some cover crops must be terminated and replanted.  Chop and drop before the cover crop goes to seed.

Some cover crops are edible and will help keep weed out of the garden.

Mustards, turnips, cowpeas, sweet potatoes, borage, fava beans, just to name a few.

What is your reasoning for wanting a cover crop?

I was hoping to replenish nutrients in the soil after the season and help with compaction. I also just wanted to experiment a bit. Green cover and true leaf have wonderful, diverse cover crop mixes I was thinking of using. Anyways, this was helpful. Thank you!

WOW thank you! I think I'll try in the spring then if it seems right. If not, I'll skip it for this season. Thanks for your two cents! Much appreciated

You don't have to wait till the current crops are done. Instead, broadcast cover crop seeds sparsely now underneath. Small seeds such as lentil, daikon, arugula and grains germinate readily after a good rain shower. Young seedlings require little of nutrient and don't compete with the established plants. Late summer and early fall can still have heat waves and the seedlings will benefit from some shading provided by the canopy. You can leave the squashes be until frost kill and let the residues break down in situ and recycle nutrients quickly to feed the cover crops. If you want grains to overwinter, plant rye, if not, oat will be less hardy. In my zone 6b climate,  if I get the cover crops in early, overlapping with existing veggies,  they have a longer growing season and have stronger root systems. In that case, they stay green well into January, producing more biomass to protect soil from erosion and reduce the leaching of mobile nutrients such as nitrogen and boron.