kelsey coultas

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

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!

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!

William Bronson wrote: I think I would leave them.
You would be providing for the beneficial insects and as you said, your plants seem fine.

That is what I have been doing! Thanks

Hi, this is my first post! So I started chopping and dropping in my garden, but as I was going along I noticed most of the smartweed has aphids on it. I also noticed some ladybugs hanging around most likely having a feast. I decided to toss the smartweed I chopped into the woods and left most of it growing in the ground since none of my plants seem to have had any issue for the past few weeks.

BUT, I don't know what to do. Should I leave the smartweed to deter aphids from going after my plants or can I still chop and drop? Will aphids in the ground begin to spread? Not sure if anyone has experienced this but every smartweed plant basically has aphids. I planted a bunch of beneficial pollinator plants and flowers but they have yet to come up. I'm not too worried since none of my plants are bothered, but wondering what to do moving forward. Thanks so much!!