On Mon, 05 May 2003 11:38:35 -0500, Harold Olivier
wrote:

large snip

Sounds like a mammoth job! Wow.


I've left half of the garden flat and unditched and bedded (but like
the rest of the garden covered with mulch), and plan to sow it in a
cover crop, probably buckwheat if I can find it locally. I agree that
it sounds like the best cover for summer.

If you can't find it locally, you can buy it online from
Johnny's Selected Seeds:

http://www.johnnyseeds.com/catalog/index.html

In the quantities needed for a home garden, it's cheap. I
just called our local farm and feed store (Agway - I think
they're called 'Southern States' in the south) and they sell
buckwheat for 56 cents/pound.

As for problems with Annual Rye, besides the sprouting inhibition, I

snip

One last point - LSU recommends trying marigolds and other summer
flowering 'annuals' broadcast in open areas of beds as a cover crop. I
can buy marigold seed in bulk locally, so I might try that if I need a
living cover within the beds. It supposedly helps to suppress
nematodes, although I don't know it they are a problem here yet.


I didn't know about the sprouting inhibition of rye. I
think I'll not use it for that reason.

Flowering annuals would make a nice cover crop. I don't
know if I can buy marigold seed in bulk - I'll look.

Thanks for all the information.

Pat