A Positive Cover-up

Cover crops seem to be foreign territory to many home gardeners. It certainly isn’t because we aren’t in favor of the benefits they provide to the soil.  Who isn’t behind a plan to increase soil fertility, add soil organic matter and make better soil structure while reducing soil erosion and nipping weed problems?  I believe that gardeners just aren’t familiar with cover crops.  One way to get schooled is to visit the Master Gardener Demonstration Garden, located at the Robert C. Parker School in North Greenbush.  Nancy Scott and her Master Gardener friends have a great display of field peas, buckwheat, red clover, daikon radish, fava beans, oats and green beans growing right now!   You are welcome to stop by during daylight hours.

 

Simply stated, cover crops cover the soil between harvestable crops.  As they grow, they trap nutrients and break up soil compaction, and when they are mowed or plowed under they add organic matter and nutrients.  Increasing the amount of organic matter in the soil by just 1% will make the soil hold an extra 27,000 gallons of water when it rains, thereby reducing runoff into rivers.  More carbon in the soil also increases the fungi, bacteria and other wee beasties there, which in turn improves the soil “glue” and allows water to infiltrate more effectively.  Plowing, rototilling or turning over the soil (all forms of tillage) reduces soil organic matter, releases nitrogen and increases weeds, problems which can be stemmed with cover crops.  Eliminating or minimizing tillage and maximizing plant cover year-round protects the soil.  During the times of the year when a crop isn’t being grown, the soil should therefore be swathed in a cover crop.  Although these concepts are aimed at larger-scale farming, they apply just as well to our vegetable gardens, too. 

 

A variety of plants are used as cover crops.  Some are grasses, including rye, wheat, oats, and Sudangrass.  They grow quickly and are good at trapping nutrients and suppressing weeds in the next crop.  Others are legumes, such as cowpeas, vetches and clovers, famous for their ability to take nitrogen from the air and put it into the soil.  Sometimes grasses and legumes are mixed, so that the nitrogen captured by the legume can be further sequestered by the grass.  Two of the most interesting cover crop plants to me are the Daikon-type radish and buckwheat.  The radishes quickly grow huge root systems, busting through tough soils, then die over winter, leaving improved water infiltration, surface drainage, and soil warming in their wake.  Buckwheat is not a grass at all but a broadleaved plant which grows fast, loosening the soil and choking out weeds.  It is normally mowed before it fully flowers, but anyone concerned about pollinators will let it go, since it is a favorite of honeybees and other beneficials.

Fitting cover crops into a vegetable garden plan is tricky, and gardeners may be reluctant to fork over usable space.  Yet the many positives might just reap big rewards for a gardener willing to experiment.     

Taken With Turtlehead

It was a little scrap of a plant which no one wanted that May evening.  The dust had just cleared, literally, at the end of the Master Gardener Plant Swap, a night when all sorts of containers, trays, milk jugs and beer flats come into the Extension office loaded with a huge variety of plants.  The crazy spreaders are there, such as gooseneck loosestrife and obedient plant, as well as the vigorous self-sowers such as perilla and flowering tobacco.   Amongst the thugs, however, there were some gems like Margaret’s Japanese maples and Frank’s choice hostas.  The big thrill is getting some neat plants for free.

I certainly could understand why the plant in question was left abandoned - the three leaves in a blob of dirt in a paper cup were not attractive – but if the label, stating simply Chelone, was true, this was a superior native deserving a good garden home.

At my place, small, ailing or experimental plants live in containers next to the greenhouse in the convalescent zone.  They are watered daily with a dilute solution of fertilizer and given their choice of sun or shade.  This VIP treatment produces great results, and when large enough to compete in the real garden, the healthy patients are transplanted. 

The mystery Chelone took to this treatment immediately, and soon produced several stems covered with dark, healthy leaves.  I became convinced its tag was correct – it was a turtlehead, but which species?  Gardening books claim there are three native to the eastern US.  Chelone glabra has white flowers, which are sometimes flushed with pink.  C. lyonii has pink flowers and wider leaves with coarser teeth on the edge, and has the biggest native range.  C. obliqua is similar, too, but has a shorter petiole (the stem that connects the leaf blade to the main stem) and lives in wetlands.  Since mine has bloomed, I am pretty sure I’ve got C. lyonii.

All of the turtleheads like dampish soil, part shade to sun, and grow two and four feet in height.  Given a site to its liking, a turtlehead plant can grow into a large clump in three to four years.  It is beset by few problems, other than occasional powdery mildew, and can be pinched in spring to create a bushier plant. 

Even though it is a native, turtlehead is suitable not just for a woodland or streamside garden, but also perfectly fine in a perennial garden featuring some of the fanciest European and Asian hybrids.  Interestingly, plant breeders seem to have ignored this genus, as there are few cultivated varieties for sale.

The unique structure of the turtlehead’s flower makes it, well, a turtlehead.  The blossoms are produced on terminal spikes, are about 1 inch in length, and do quite resemble a reptilian head.   Late bloom time is also a big asset.  My plant started flowering in late August, and is in full show now in mid-September.       

If you can’t find an orphan, I’d recommend investing money in a turtlehead.