Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gardening

The best plants to include when planting a cover crop this season

By

Cover crops can provide a lot of benefits for your garden. They can help your soil recover nutrients, choke out weeds, and stop your soil from eroding if you don’t plan on growing a full garden. There are plenty of plants that make good cover crops, but if you’re determined to have only the best for your garden then you’re in luck. These five plants are some of the best cover crops to start with. Not sure which one to choose? Don’t worry, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about them to make your decision.

Clover

Clover is a favorite cover crop of many gardeners. It grows quickly and covers a wide area without much effort, is low maintenance, and is a nitrogen-fixing plant. This means that bacteria in the soil work with the clover plant to take nitrogen from the air and move it into the soil. Additionally, clover is easy to deal with once you’re done with your cover crop and ready to plant your vegetable or flower garden. It can be a source of food if you have a pet rabbit, but it is more commonly composted or used as green manure. There are several varieties of clover, but the most popular choice for cover crops is crimson clover.

Recommended Videos

Clover prefers full sun to partial shade, but struggles to thrive in full shade. When you scatter the clover seeds, make sure the soil is moist, and keep it moist while the seeds germinate. Once the clover has established itself, water it when the soil dries. In most mild climates, clover can survive off of rainfall alone.

Related

Oats

Oats are a popular choice for cool weather cover crops. Oats grow thickly, keeping encroaching weeds out of your garden with its many stems and extensive root system. It’s an especially good choice if your soil is low in phosphorus. While you can grow them to fruition and harvest some tasty grains, oats are most effective as a cover crop if they’re made into green manure while they’re still green.

Oats are best planted in early spring or fall, when the weather is cool. Oats are tolerant of many soil types and conditions, but they don’t do well in the heat. Although most oats are somewhat drought tolerant, they prefer damp or moist soil.

A patch of young green oats
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Ryegrass

Perennial ryegrass is a popular choice for lawns, but it can be an effective cover crop in gardens as well. Ryegrass isn’t the best cover crop if you’re looking to improve your soil quality, as it doesn’t add much back to the soil. However, it’s easy to grow and one of the most effective cover crops when it comes to weed control. As an added bonus, you can begin growing it while you’re still harvesting your vegetable garden. Ryegrass is a cool weather grass, so it’s an excellent choice for a fall or winter cover crop. When you’re ready to grow your next garden, you can mow the grass down and mix what’s left into the soil to act as a green manure.

Vetch

Vetch may have an unpleasant sounding name, but this hardy plant from the legume family makes a wonderful cover crop. Vetch is a great option for both established gardens and new, untested plots of land. It’s tolerant of most soil types, pHs, and climates. Additionally, like most of its relatives in the legume family, vetch is a nitrogen-fixing plant. Hairy vetch is the variety that is most commonly used as a cover crop, and you may find yourself enjoying its flowers as well as its benefits to your soil!

A patch of hairy vetch
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Buckwheat

If you live in an area with a hotter climate, then some of the more common fall cover crops may not be ideal. Buckwheat, however, might be just what you need. Buckwheat is a heat-loving, cold-sensitive cover crop. It’s often planted as a summer cover crop, but can also be planted as a fall cover crop in less mild climates. Buckwheat works well for keeping weeds at bay, and, when cut down and mixed into the soil as a green manure, it can add valuable nutrients to your soil. Avoid planting buckwheat less than a month and a half before the first frost of the year, and make sure it has plenty of water.

Whether your goal is to smother weeds or enrich your soil, these five plants have you covered. Don’t forget, you can mix and match these cover crops, too. A mixture of ryegrass and clover can give you massive benefits with minimal effort. Just be sure you’re mixing plants that need the same things, and, when you’re done, you can cut the plants down, mix them into the soil, and start your next vegetable garden.

Editors’ Recommendations

Topics
Cayla Leonard
Cayla Leonard
Contributor
Cayla Leonard is a writer from North Carolina who is passionate about plants.  She enjoys reading and writing fiction and…
Your complete sago palm maintenance guide
Grow a sago palm to add a tropical flair to your home
A small sago palm in a pot designed to resemble a wicker basket. It sits on a table of light wood, next to a bookshelf of the same wood. The wall behind it has a dacorative pink, blue, and white triangular pattern.

Sago palms may not be true palms, but they are just as gorgeous. However, with these subtropical houseplants, you won’t have the same kind of look offered by those tall trees. Instead, the green fronds grow directly from the trunk without branching out. Sago palm maintenance is fairly simple, relying mostly on proper growing conditions. Adding this lovely houseplant to your collection is an excellent way to bring the tropics to your home. If you want to grow your own today, this guide will explain everything you need to know to help it thrive!
Care requirements for your sago palm

Because they’re native to tropical regions, sago palms prefer to be in warm, humid environments. This is why, for the most part, they’re grown as houseplants outside of these areas. Sago palms grown indoors should be protected from any drafts or air flowing from heating and AC units as the extreme shift in temperature can cause damage.
Light
Sago palms prefer bright, indirect lighting and shouldn’t be placed in direct sunlight. Direct lighting, especially on hot summer days, can cause sunburn damage and result in wilting leaves. As a houseplant, sago palms will favor east-, west-, and south-facing windows so long as they receive a lot of lighting throughout the day. Keep in mind that too much shade will also cause adverse effects, most noticeably spare foliage.
Soil
Like most houseplants, sago palms need only well-draining soil (and of course, a pot with a drainage hole for excess water to escape through)! There are potting mixes made specifically for palms grown in containers, and although the sago palm isn’t a true palm, this should do the trick.
Water
As a tropical plant, sago palms prefer moderately moist soils. They can tolerate some drought, but not very well. Proper sago palm maintenance requires watering the plant whenever the soil is dry to touch; however, be mindful of how much you’re watering to avoid soggy soil and leaving your plant susceptible to root rot.
Diseases and pests to be aware of

Read more
These are the 5 best squash companion plants (and the worst)
Plant these next to your squash
Winter squash plants

Squash makes an excellent addition to summer and fall vegetable gardens. Squash on their own are relatively easy to grow, but gardens rarely contain only one plant. So what should you grow next to your squash, and what plants should be farther away? This guide to squash companion plants will answer all your questions. We’ve compiled a list of some of the best squash companion plants, as well as a few of the ones you should avoid, so that you can plan your next garden without worry.
Beans and peas

Beans and peas are both classic squash companion plants. Native cultures have been planting them together for centuries as part of the three sisters planting method. Beans are nitrogen-fixing plants, meaning they pull nitrogen from the air and reintroduce it to the soil, benefiting the squash plants. Peas are legumes, just like beans, and they will also add nitrogen back to the soil. The squash leaves shade the soil, preventing it from drying out too quickly.

Read more
What does NPK mean when it comes to fertilizing plants?
Your guide to the main nutrients in the NPK ratio for robust plant growth
A gardener fertilizing a young plant

Just like humans, plants need food to stay healthy and strong. Fertilizers give plants full-sized leaves, healthy roots, and vibrant flowers. Without sufficient soil nutrients, plants will grow very slowly, developing weak stems and pale leaves. Fertilizer helps make up for what the soil may be lacking, so that your garden has a balanced diet to grow and thrive.

When choosing your fertilizer, you might have noticed something on the label called an NPK ratio. If you're wondering what that means and how to use it to choose the best fertilizer for your plants, we have the answers.
What is NPK's meaning in plant fertilizing?

Read more