What is the best green manure for spring (and fall)?
Question:
I have raised beds. What is the best green manure to put on the soil for the spring and then the fall? Clover? Rye?
Answer:
Tori Lee Jackson, Extension Professor of Agriculture and Natural Resources
The cover crops and green manures you choose to improve your raised bed garden soil (and potentially break some pest cycles) depend on what you are trying to accomplish. Have you done a soil test recently? Are you trying to suppress weeds? Or, just improve organic matter? I recommend Bulletin #1170, Cover Cropping for Success for a listing of species and purposes for each, as well as when to plant and how to kill or incorporate them back into your soil. The keys to the process are not to let your soil stay bare and not to let any of your cover crops flower and go to seed or you could end up with a years-long weed problem.