You may have heard the saying, “nature abhors a vacuum.” Although it applies to many situations, farmers and gardeners have a unique understanding. They know that leaving a plot of land open ...

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... For an Earth-friendly garden, keep a succession of plants in the soil by planting cover crops. These are plants grown to improve the soil rather than for ...

The composition of the mustard plant and its root system suppresses the nematodes, pushing them deeper into the soil and thus eliminating the pest problem. Other types of cover crop are also used to ...

A mustard cover crop blankets a field along San Andreas Road between La Selva Beach and Watsonville that had, until recently, been planted with strawberries. Cover crops have shown great promise in ...

Maybe after you finish your vegetable harvest, you mentally say, “I’m done this year,” and wait to start again next year. But a cover crop could benefit you in several ways. By researching now, you ...

Have you ever thought of using cover crops to overwinter your garden? Cover crops are plants that are planted to cover the soil for benefits besides that of harvesting. It can be an inexpensive way to ...

What are cover crops and why would I want to use them in my home garden? We all know that the foundation of a great garden is healthy, nutrient-rich soil. There are many ways to improve the ...

What are winter kill cover crops? What are the reasons for planting a cover crop in my garden at the end of the season? Planting a cover crop in your garden after harvest is one technique to help ...

When the Southern Cover Crops Council held its annual conference recently in Baton Rouge, I was fortunate to sit in on panel discussions with farmers and specialty crops (vegetables, fruits, nuts and ...