If your garden is going to sit empty through the winter, don’t leave that soil bare. Plant a cover crop instead.

Cover crops are planted when you’re not actively growing vegetables or other crops. Rather than harvesting them, you grow them to protect and improve the soil. They can help reduce erosion, add organic matter, suppress weeds, improve soil structure, and keep living roots in the ground during the off-season.

For a fall garden cover crop, one of our favorites is Hairy Vetch.

Why Hairy Vetch?

There are plenty of good cover crops to choose from. For Texas gardens, Texas A&M AgriLife lists hairy vetch, crimson clover, cereal rye, and wheat among the winter crops that can be grown as cover crops or green manure. AgriLife also specifically recommends rye or oats as fall-planted green manure for home garden soil improvement. system.

So why do we like hairy vetch?

Hairy vetch is a legume, which means it helps add nitrogen back to the soil. It also provides good winter ground cover, helps suppress weeds, and gives you plenty of plant material to mow and work back into the garden as green manure before spring planting. Texas A&M notes that hairy vetch is used for green manure and soil stabilization, making it a very practical choice when part of your garden would otherwise sit empty all winter.

That’s a lot of benefit from simply keeping something growing in your garden through the off-season.

How We Use It in the Garden

If we’re not planting a fall garden, we like putting hairy vetch in those open areas instead.

Then we work through the garden a section at a time as planting season approaches. For example, you can mow and till under the area you need for onions ahead of January planting, then do the same thing with another section before it’s time for potatoes in February.

The rest of the vetch can keep doing its job until you’re ready for that ground.

It’s a pretty simple system: grow it, mow it, work it back into the soil, then plant your next crop.

A Little Work This Fall Can Help Your Spring Garden Thrive

It’s easy to forget about the garden once the summer crop is finished. But what you do with that empty ground through fall and winter can make a difference when it’s time to plant again.

Cover crops such as Hairy vetch gives you a practical way to cover bare soil, suppress some winter weeds, add organic matter, and take advantage of the nitrogen-fixing ability of a legume—all while preparing the garden for another season.

Thinking about planting a cover crop this fall? Stop by Johnson Feed and talk with us. We’re happy to help you get the seed you need and figure out what makes sense for your garden.