Organic Jerry Oats mixed with Field Peas 50/50 may be sown fall or spring. Sow 3 lbs per 1,000 square feet; 45 lbs per acre. Grows to 5 feet tall. Produces lots of biomass and nitrogen for building soil and feeding plants. This is our most highly recommended, very simple, covercrop for fall or spring planting. The peas climb up the oats. In this classic combo, you get Nitrogen and Carbon growing hand-in-hand, a kind of living compost pile. Very, very good for the land. How to proceed once the covercrop has matured and you want to plant other things? Once the field dries out a bit, on a sunny day perhaps, cut the peas and oats down and/or mow them down and then let the field/garden sit in that new green mulch for a week or two, so the debris can compost in place. Then, plant your potted plants right through the mulch or go ahead and till it in with a rototiller and then prepare your seed bed or plant your potted plants. The fact that you covercropped will have reduced weed pressure, increased nitrogen and carbon content of the soil, increased fertility and improved soil tilth. Think ahead. Covercrop. It helps. r
