Managing Hairy Vetch?

I've finally had enough of maintaining a lawn in my front yard, and I'll finally have the time in the coming years to commit to a very serious veg garden, so to get started I planted a fall cover crop of daikon radish and hairy vetch on my front yard. I've kept it well watered and we've had unseasonably warm days this fall so it doing great! I'm fully read up on all the details regarding these two cover crops: The daikon radish will winter kill and leave behind some very well aerated soil and lots of organic material, while the hairy vetch will go dormant over the winter and burst forth with new growth in spring, and once it flowers I'll kill it so it doesn't drop seed.

What I'm wondering is what will happen to the vetch if I mow the yard in a few weeks after we have a hard frost? My goal here is to collect all that green leaf material from the radish to use for a very large compost pile that will be ready in the spring. I'd prefer to gather that nitrogen rich organic matter and store it as compost as opposed to letting it rot in place and the radish is dead anyway, but what will happen to the vetch? I'm presuming the vigorous  spring growth I'm expecting will come from the vetch root system and the existing vetch vines will more or less winter kill as well. Am I correct in this? I've also read plenty about how hard it is to get rid of vetch once it's established but I'm guessing this is a result of seeding and not being able to mow or kill the area because there are other plants that are desirable.

I'd love to hear anyone's experiences with vetch and whether or not mowing it down after a hard frost will kill it, or will it come back in the spring as hoped?

To me, it seems that the Hairy Vetch can be managed by mowing before it sets seed.

Why not plant edible crops instead?  Turnips instead of daikon radishes?

Crimson clover instead of Hairy Vetch?

Anne Miller wrote:To me, it seems that the Hairy Vetch can be managed by mowing before it sets seed.

Why not plant edible crops instead?  Turnips instead of daikon radishes?

Crimson clover instead of Hairy Vetch?

Why not? Because that's what I chose to plant. daikon is edible, but I have no interest in eating it. Or turnips for that matter. Do you always reply to questions by telling someone what you think they should have done instead of simply answering the question?

Andrew Roesner wrote: Do you always reply to questions by telling someone what you think they should have done instead of simply answering the question?

I was not telling you that you should do anything.  I ask a simple question as a learning experience.

Maybe other folks would like to know why it is good to plant Hairy Vetch and Daikon Radishes.