Time to start planning the 2026 garden

Hard frost coming on Tuesday Night (we are in zone 3) so we have been pulling everything except parsnips and Brussel sprouts.

We seed, cereal grains for a cover crop as soon as we empty a bed.
Garlic goes in a raised bed in 2 weeks so I am already planning for next year's crop rotation.

We will add 1 more 4 x 8 raised bed in spring and then I think we have used up the available space.

The rest of the open space is filled with large grow pots/containers and 20 gal. grow bags.

Your deer must be much better behaved than my deer. I watched one cross over a patch of tall weeds and eat all the leaves off my potato plant a few years ago.

I suppose it all depends on how desperate the deer is?

I tried grains for cover crops before with mixed results. It doesn't produce much biomass if I terminate too early, but if I do it at the right timing, I miss the window for most annuals. I am interested in more details of your system. What cereals are you using? Will they survive winter and what is your schedule for termination? Is there a reason not to include legume or other broad leaf species?

May Lotito wrote:I tried grains for cover crops before with mixed results. It doesn't produce much biomass if I terminate too early, but if I do it at the right timing, I miss the window for most annuals. I am interested in more details of your system. What cereals are you using? Will they survive winter and what is your schedule for termination? Is there a reason not to include legume or other broad leaf species?

Its barley, wheat and oats.Its what I have a lot of on hand as it what I grow for fodder for our chickens. It will grow until its time to cover with leaves. Some are already over a foot tall.