living mulch
aka green manure
aka what the heck are you talking about MEL?!
yeah, i was just as amazed this past weekend when i heard about this concept by, none other than, Farmer T… yes, as you can tell, we discuss farming and gardening topics quite often
using {specifically white dutch} clover as a cover crop is nothing new to the gardening scene – just mine i guess – THE MAN (Masanobu Fukuoka) wrote extensively about this concept and you can read lots more about him HERE
his method of farming is pretty simple:
no machines
no chemicals
no weeding
just my style!
so what is living mulch?
straight from Wikipedia:
a cover crop interplanted or undersown with a main crop, and intended to serve the functions of a mulch, such as weed suppression and regulation of soil temperature.
planting white clover in your garden can reap many benefits:
LESS WEEDING
it prevents most weeds and grass from forming in your garden beds
RETAINS MOISTURE
the same as ‘regular’ mulch does, the clover absorbs most of the sun before the soil does
NITROGEN REGULATOR
it will level out the nitrogen in the soil to help the plants grow
IMPROVES SOIL QUALITY
can help break up a hardpan and greatly improve tilth
ATTRACTS BEES
which are needed to pollinate fruiting vegetables
how do you get started?
hit up a seed company (like these guys), order yourself a bag o’ seeds
scatter the seeds around your garden in the areas you want it to grow (preferably on a not-so-sunny day)
sit back and wait for the seeds to germinate and begin to grow into your very own
LIVING MULCH!
no tilling required
Posted by DePa on 2011/09/27 at 18:07
3 Generation of farmers, you know well, used this same method too
Posted by Mel on 2011/09/27 at 20:46
I think 4… your g-pa too, right?
Posted by pickle me green « hungry for living on 2011/10/03 at 15:11
[…] that they were coming down to make way for the crimson clover seeds i ordered to create some green manure over the […]
Posted by crimson and clover « hungry for living on 2011/10/19 at 11:36
[…] and come to think of it, i actually kind of wanted it to rain today. midway through last week my package from Territorial Seed Company came in the mail… including a big ol’ bag of crimson clover seeds (i talked about the green manure/living mulch/cover crop concept in THIS POST) […]
Posted by the giraffe test « hungry for living on 2012/02/24 at 15:09
[…] inside (here’s last year’s operation), turning over the crimson clover to create that green manure i was raving about, planting pepper seeds (i know, i’m a little late on this!), and running 9 […]