We don't till here nor do much to the soil other than add organic matter whenever we can. We also mulch our plants so this year we thought we would combine the efforts.
I pulled apart little gaps in the crimson clover for easy planting and dug in to find fantastic soil thanks to the plant roots and all the invertebrates hard at work. (I had to dig so carefully there were so many critters!)
I planted our peppers directly into crimson clover that I cut off with hand trimmers:
When I got to planting the tomatoes though, I thought I would try just laying flat the crimson clover and swirling it around the tomatoes and it was so much easier. It also still allowed the crimson clover to hold their blooms offering nectar to pollinators.
We are now several weeks into this mulch and it is fantastic! The peppers and tomatoes are growing and the clover is going to seed so I imagine it will self sow and we may have a self perpetuating cover crop for our Solanaceae. We will keep you posted, but so far this technique is a winner.
P.S. For those of you interested in our native plant nursery, the plant babies are growing and many will be ready soon. I will do a nursery update here, on our website and via our email list as soon as we are open. It's our favorite time of year. 😄
P.P.S Steve made a video of our little stream restoration at The Common Milkweed and it's pretty cool!
What a clever idea! Will you till the clover in the fall or just it lay on top? I enjoyed Steve's stream video, y'all have done a great job with your land.
ReplyDeleteHey lady. Thanks....we love restoring this little patch of ground to what it wants to be. :) We will just keep piling stuff on top of that mulch or if the crimson clover germinates with the new seed drop, we will just let it grow and then do the same thing. We don't own a tiller and won't use one because it messes up soil structure and the soil food web. We hope your plants are growing, growing, growing!
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