The Best Winter Ground Cover Plant

Decades ago, farmers relied on winter cover crops to replenish the soil and combat disease and pests, without the use of pesticides and commercial fertilizers. You can still count on the benefits of using a winter crop as long as you plant the crop suitable for your application. Some considerations will include the planting date, what you want from the cover crop and how you want to manage it when it is time to plant your regular crops in the spring. Some of the more common cover crops are fall-seeded cereals, such as rye or wheat, and fall-seeded annual ryegrass, although the hairy vetch, bigflower vetch, Austrian winter peas and crimson clover may also serve as alternative crops for winter cover.

Make a chart of your planting schedule to determine what time you have available for growing a winter cover crop. Mark down the latest date for harvesting your fall crop and the earliest date for planting your spring crop, leaving enough time to manage the cover crop before spring planting. Choose a plant that will grow quickly in your climate if you have a short season, or a crop that will continue to grow for a longer window of time.

Determine what you want from the cover crop since some plants like alfalfa and the cowpea will actually fix nitrogen from the air and make it available in the soil for the next crop. Choose a grass cover if you want your winter cover crop to use up the extra nitrogen in the soil and prevent the excess from filtering out into the water table. Find a thick mat-forming ground cover like vetch if you want to prevent weeds from growing over the surface of the soil.

Find a cover crop that you will be able to manage when you want to plant your next crop since some plants like grasses might be hard to remove from the area. If you don’t have the equipment or time to plow it under, you may find that you have to use herbicides to fight the invasion of your winter crop with your spring crop. Think about using a cool-weather crop to attract foraging animals in the area, as their droppings will also add to the nutrients of the soil.

Choose a cover crop that you can access the seed inexpensively and save yourself from outlaying extra cash. Some grains will go to seed over the winter and you can harvest them for your next year’s winter cover crop. Consider the cost of the seed and compare it to the cost of adding fertilizers or other amendments to your soil to determine if using a cover crop is economical for your property.