What are cover crops and what role do they play?
Cover crops are grown to “cover” the soil after the primary garden crop has been harvested to protect the soil during the fall, winter, and early spring. One of the functions of a cover crop is to prevent erosion from washing away organic matter and soil from your garden. They also function to protect the soil from damaging rain drops that can easily destroy soil structure. Cover crops also play important roles in catching nutrients and holding them during the winter. Nitrogen is easily lost from garden soils when there are no roots or plants to “hold” it during the winter. Cover crops can hold nutrients, improving next year’s fertility and protecting the environment from nutrient runoff or leaching. Other important functions of cover crops are that they add organic matter back into the soil when they are tilled in the following season, providing “food” for the microbial community in your soil and adding beneficial biological life to your garden. Cover crops also help with weed control
