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--- garden:cultivate:tasks:grnmanure:prepare [2014/10/12 20:28] – davidbac
+++ garden:cultivate:tasks:grnmanure:prepare [2014/10/12 20:37] (current) – [Race of the ages] davidbac
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+===== Preparing the soil =====
+To prepare the soil for planting a cover crop for green manure I first attack the weeds.
+==== Race of the ages ====
+I'm often in a quandary about whether to till (with a diamond hoe) and immediately plant a cover crop or to let weeds sprout, and then hoe and plant.
+The dynamic is that sometimes the weeds get a head start on the green manure and limit its growth, even taking over.
+==== Latest try ====
+{{ :garden:cultivate:tasks:weed:img_1346dw.jpg?360|A cover crop getting a head start on the weeds in the sweet corn patch of 2014}}Lately, I have hoed the weeds, planted, and then used the diamond hoe again to work in the cover crop seeds. This takes a lot of time and effort and I'd like to find a way to leave out a step.
+There must be an ideal way to go at this. Though sometimes it seems that whichever way I try, the weeds get a foothold before the cover crop does. It may depend on how well I have suppressed the weeds in the previous months. In the sweet corn patch at the farm, which I kept in a dust mulch all season, the cover crop appears to be dominant. Maybe that's a good model, but I can't always keep the weeds that much under control.
+More later....