Foot Crimping Overwintering Mix in a Garden

Have you ever wondered how to crimp cover crop on a small scale?
Our Marketing Director, Jonathan, is demonstrating how to do just that! Jonathan did end up tarping after crimping in order to fully terminate the vetch.
The same six soil health principles of minimize soil disturbance, integrate livestock, keep soils covered, maximize diversity, maintain living roots and of course, know your context, apply to operations of all sizes! It can be a fun challenge to get creative in applying these principles to your unique situation.
Check out our Highly Diverse Pre-Made Mixes which have multiple applications for gardening, including our Overwintering Mix: store.greencover.com/collecti...
Learn More about Green Cover Mixes on a smaller scale: greencover.com/garden-homestead/
The team at Green Cover not only delivers high quality cover crop seed, but also educational content on topics of soil heath and cover crops.
If you love our KZbin content, dive into our other great resources like the Soil Health Resource Guide: greencover.com/freeguides
At Green Cover, we grow, clean, mix, and deliver the highest quality cover crop seed directly to agricultural producers across the United States.
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[@nommindymple6241]

Thanks for this. I appreciate your putting out videos to help us non-commercial (i.e. smaller stands of plants/cover crops and missing equipment) people figure out how to handle our cover crops around the house.

[@user-vw3hs4ou1w]

I have been doing hand crimping for a while and it works great...very empowering for gardeners! Boy you got a lot to hand crimp there....gonna get ripped!

[@denniskemnitz1381]

Please Send us a followup pic esp showing effective and successful crimping action. Dennis

[@keithberns910]

Yes, I think that Jonathan is planning on doing a follow up video later in the season to show the garden growing in the crimped residue

[@paulvandenberg5341]

I did something similar with a broken snowboard and two pieces of angled iron. The straps let you hop with both feet. Quite a workout! Did one 4x20 raised bed a day.

[@GreenCoverSeed]

That does sound like a workout!

[@j2brewer]

Do you plan to tarp for awhile or cover with cardboard before transplanting or just crimp and wait a week or two then transplant?

[@GreenCoverSeed]

I'm not planning on tarping since we waited until anthesis. I've had good success with tarping after crimping in the past, so it will be interesting to see how this does without the tarp.

[@GreenCoverSeed]

I did end up tarping. The rye terminated very well, but the vetch did not. A week under a black tarp did the trick. In the future, I will plan to tarp immediately after crimping unless it's just rye.

[@j2brewer]

@@GreenCoverSeed Thanks for the followup. Good to know.

[@earlmanigault4020]

how much can you do for 1 hour?thx

[@GreenCoverSeed]

It's relatively tiring work-It takes me about 10 minutes to very thoroughly crimp one of our 70 ft rows, and after that, I'm ready for a short break. So probably a couple hours total for the 10 rows we had overwintering mix planted in our garden this year.

[@earlmanigault4020]

@@GreenCoverSeed thanks!

[@nommindymple6241]

You're transplanting into your crimped cover crop. If broadcasting seed, is there any hope for success in a crimped cover crop? If I crimp before broadcasting, I don't think the seed will make contact with the ground. If I crimp after broadcasting, the emerging plant might not be able to penetrate the crimped cover crop to reach the light.

[@GreenCoverSeed]

I agree- I don't think broadcasting has much chance of success in a crimped cover crop. You can clear the residue away after the crimped cover crop is dead, but a different termination method (perhaps mowing and tarping or tilling under) might work better for that application.