In order to improve soil heath and organic matter, vegetable gardeners should aim to have actively growing plants in the garden for 10 or eleven months each year. This is desirable because organisms ...

To maintain soil that produces successful crops, it helps to give it a rest now and then.That's what cover crops are all about. They prevent erosion, retain moisture, suppress weeds, reduce compaction ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – No one wants to think of harvest’s end as the vegetable garden reaches peak, but now’s the time to plant over-winter cover crops to improve your soil for next season. If you’re not ...

Chickpea plant that is nitrogen-fixing and drought-tolerant blooming in a field - Sean Gallup/Getty Images Because they are primarily grown for food, you may not think of the chickpea (Cicer arietinum ...

In the fall, you might be tempted to remove the dead plant material, till your garden soil a bit, and put your garden to bed for the winter without another thought. However, you can also grow cover ...

LANSING — A new University of Michigan study suggests cover crop mixtures improve farmland soil health while reducing carbon emissions better than traditional single-species cover crops. But farmers ...

Dry, hot regions are difficult places to grow plants because the soil dries out quickly. As a result, farmers in arid and semi-arid regions irrigate their fields with buried networks of irrigation ...

Before you put your garden to bed, consider giving it a winter blanket—aka, a cover crop. Sowed in the fall, these cold-hardy plants work hard to improve soil throughout winter by decreasing ...

Many larger farmers or those in strictly corn, soybean rotations are apprehensive about using cover crops to Flip their Soil, and that is especially true for farmers in drier climates. However, in ...

Every fall after the growing season is over, I continue my soil-building regime by planting a winter cover crop. You’ll sometimes hear cover crops used in this type of application referred to as a ...

When the Southern Cover Crops Council held its annual conference recently in Baton Rouge, I was fortunate to sit in on panel discussions with farmers and specialty crops (vegetables, fruits, nuts and ...

It's common for home gardeners to give their vegetable patches a spell before planting the next crop. But having the soil sitting bare can cause problems you may not be aware of. If your area ...