I am planting cover crop this year and the biggest reason is that it is easy to do with my new tractor. Just cereal rye but it has sprouted well in the seedling gardens already and is 4 inches tall where we first planted it. My easy peasy method is to to dig the dahlias(yes that is the first step) and then mow the weeds with my riding mower that have grown between the rows. Then I use my really cheap, bought at Goodwill, Scotts broadcast spreader to broadcast about a 6 foot swath of seeds over the entire area. Then the hard part(when I had the old tractor,) I use the new tractor tiller set at about 2 inches deep to till the seeds in. My old tractor was always set to 6 inches deep and lowering the tiller to 2 inches was hit and miss. The new tractor also has power steering and auto transmission and a seat belt and roll bar. The seed company was out of vetch seeds and I did add some austrian pea seeds and wish I had spent few bucks and bought some daikon radish seeds. Those radish plants make you feel like you are a real gardener as they grow huge, esaily over a foot long and 4 inches wide. The cover crop also looks better during the winter but then again who invites people to see their unplanted garden in the winter?
