Homegrown Humus: Cover Crops in a No-Till Garden (Permaculture Gardener)

Homegrown humus is easy with cover crops!

Cover crops are a simple, cheap way to boost your soil's organic matter, to fight weeds, to prevent erosion, to attract pollinators, and to keep the ecosystem in balance. Unfortunately, most information on growing cover crops is written for people who plow their soil every year and are willing to spray herbicides. You can get all of the same benefits in a no-till garden, though, if you're clever.

Homegrown Humus details five no-till winners in depth --- buckwheat, sweet potatoes, oilseed radishes, rye, and oats. Profiles of other species suggest gardening conditions when you might want to try out sunflowers, annual ryegrass, barley, Austrian winter peas, crimson clover, cowpeas, or sunn hemp as well.

Meanwhile, the book delves into finding cover-crop seeds, planting cover crops in a no-till garden, and easily killing cover crops without tilling or herbicide use. Understanding the C:N ratio of cover crops helps determine how long to wait between killing cover crops and planting vegetables, as well as how to maximize the amount of humus you're adding to your soil.

Cover crops are an advanced gardening technique bound to increase your vegetable yields, but are simple enough for beginners. Give your garden a treat --- grow some buckwheat!

• The Ultimate Guide to Soil: The Real Dirt on Cultivating Crops, Compost, and a Healthier Home
• The Naturally Bug-Free Garden: Controlling Pest Insects without Chemicals
• Teaming with Fungi: The Organic Grower's Guide to Mycorrhizae (Science for Gardeners)
• Teaming with Microbes: The Organic Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web, Revised Edition
• Teaming with Nutrients: The Organic Gardener’s Guide to Optimizing Plant Nutrition
• Mycorrhizal Planet: How Symbiotic Fungi Work with Roots to Support Plant Health and Build Soil Fertility
• Weedless Gardening
• Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, 2nd Edition
• Sepp Holzer's Permaculture: A Practical Guide to Small-Scale, Integrative Farming and Gardening
• The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming (New York Review Books Classics)