2 Methods for Terminating a Cover Crop

Cover crops have many wonderful benefits to the home garden, but how exactly do you terminate the crop to prepare for planting? Learn all about 2 methods for terminating your cover crop as well as how to prepare your garden bed for planting.
0:00 Introduction
0:09 What are cover crops and their benefits?
2:14 Method 1: Crimping
3:58 Method 2: Chopping and Dropping
5:24 4 week later and observations
9:03 How to prepare your bed for planting
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[@patrickguyot1290]

Thats where a hedgecutter come in handy 😊

[@PlowAndPantryHomestead]

Yes! Thanks for covering the skipped over parts! Seeing the processing of killing off the cover crop is so valuable and so hard to find!

[@rachelcomte8089]

I totally agree that there is not much content on this termination process. Everything I've read and watched just says plant in fall and it'll be ready to go in spring. Like, what? So this was so helpful. Thanks for sharing!

[@OurSanctuaryGarden]

I’m glad it was helpful! I decided to do my own research and trial and error and share what I learned

[@jroy6485]

Adding compost over the cardboard will add nutrients to the soil and smother weed seeds from germination

[@user-gh8sl7iu3y]

Very informative, thank you. You answered so many of my questions as a new gardener. One question though…would you recommend adding compost, amendments and/or new soil before sowing the cover crop or wait until I chop & drop the cover crop and add all that just before planting for the new season? My raised beds are only a year old but they have sunk down a bit. God Bless.

[@CurlyQsgarden]

This was very helpful! Thank you!

[@camigotshall541]

Great video, Jolene. Definitely makes me long to have a garden to try this on! Also, love the chicken coop in the background :D

[@OurSanctuaryGarden]

Thank you! When you do get a garden, you’ll know what to do! 😊

[@canadaerin]

Thank you! This was incredibly helpful. We cover cropped with winter rye. I think we'll try mowing and then tarp.

[@OurSanctuaryGarden]

I’m glad it was helpful! I’m still fighting the rye a week after this video so definitely do the tarping!

[@krzysztofrudnicki5841]

You probably tried to kill it too early. What I know that winter rye should be before forming seeds, after starting making pollen. In that stage it should not regrow.

[@user-gi5zg5fg7n]

Question, this will be a new gardening spot and I am just about to blanket cover it to kill all the weeds and overgrowth on the hillside, then I hope to do a cover crop to enrich the soil since it’s fairly acidic (it’s also kinda sandy- maybe I should add more soil but I am trying to do inexpensive things and still get a good harvest. So as to the cover crop is there a way to do a quick 4 week cover crop and smother it with the fabric I have and still be able to put my spring transplants in? In zone 5a last year and 6a now. So our last frost is usually around memorial day (last frost +7). Could I sow peas in early April maybe as a cover crop because it does well in cooler weather or is my hillside really going to need that extra time and I should just stick with a fall harvest post cover crop? Thank you. It’s a huge area like 4k sq feet so dumping tons of topsoil or compost on it would be quite expensive. But I will take all the advice as this is very new to me. Thanks! Also, I want to add the hillside I am covering does have poisonous berries that sprouted up this year. Is that an issue? I just snipped them all off so no berries currently in the soil. But possibly from last year. And second there is a lot of extremely long grass in clumps maybe that would be enough of a cover crop since it’s filled with nitrogen? Ok thanks again.

[@jez770]

You didn't try cutting it at, or just below, soil level, ie. with a shsrp serated knife! Regrowth will be much less, or absent.

[@fatihakhan4381]

Hi after chopping and covering with cardboard for 1 month is enough to terminate rye.

[@OurSanctuaryGarden]

That’s a tricky question to answer because rye tends to want to grow back but I was able to mostly terminate it by smothering for 1 month. There were a few places that I ended up just digging it up. I think peas, buckwheat and oats are much easier to terminate

[@fatihakhan4381]

thanks for the answer hope you are doing well. @@OurSanctuaryGarden

[@patrickguyot1290]

Comes

[@lindalyc]

what's your planting zone? city or state if you don't mind? thanks

[@OurSanctuaryGarden]

I’m in western WA zone 8b.