GICD cover crops and Bermuda
Don Lambert
in the next couple of weeks.
For those of you that have beds invested with Bermuda grass ( and other
weeds as well) this is the ideal time to get some control through the
use of cover crops. The choices are buckwheat, southern pea (black-eye
types), and sweet potatoes. To plant you will need to use a machine,
or a lot of muscle to totally tear up the grass and weeds.
For buckwheat it is best to sow thickly on the roughed soil, and rake in
lightly. Water well and germination should occur in 4-5 days.
Buckwheat will grow to about 18" and flower in 4 weeks. The large
leaves will shade the weeds out, but you may need to grow several crops
through the summer to get good control. We often grow one crop of
buckwheat, and till it under (or use no-till and plant through it) and
follow with peas or sweet potato. This using early buckwheat followed
by a strong covering crop like peas, is better for getting weed control
than just using successions of buckwheat alone.
For southern peas, it is best to wait a couple more weeks before
planting. They grow fast and smother out just about anything. You saw
plots with black eyes at Our Saviour last year, and could see that they
totally dominated the space. You could plant all your hopelessly weedy
beds now to peas (besides black eye you may want to try one of the
crowder or cream peas), get plenty of peas to eat, and have pretty clean
beds to plant to fall crops (like mustard or collards) in the fall.
For sweet potatoes you need to order plants very soon from someplace like
http://www.tatorman.com/orderonline.htm
These are planted about 18" apart, two row in a bed. The vines will
cover the plot and adjacent pathways thickly, and outgrow the weeds all
through the summer and into early fall. They can be harvested in
October or early November, and the ground should then be ready for fall
crops. The vine tips and leaves are very tasty and nutritious, and we
could do a cooking class on how to prepare sweet potato leaves. The
bonus is that sweet potatoes give you great greens to eat all summer,
and you get potatoes for fall eating and winter storage. A super crop
for sure!
I am thinking for Healthy Harvest gardens Nicole could see to the
purchase of 50 pound bags of buckwheat and pea seed, and it would take
maybe two or 300 sweet potato plants for each of the Healthy Harvest
sites. At UTD the sweet potatoes would work well between the fence and
the pathway.
Planting these cover crops is the easy way to take care of those beds
that are the worst problems in your gardens. None of the these crops
will require additional water after they have become established. The
crops all require little fertility, do well in rough conditions, and
control weeds.
Let me know if I can be of help with this. We are planting these in
selected spots at Our Saviour, and you are welcome to come see them for
yourselves, or to call and ask questions.
Don
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Don Lambert
Executive Director
Gardeners in Community Development
972-231-3565
www.gardendallas.org