gardening: seed orders
If you haven't got your seeds ordered yet, you might want to front-load that chore!
Don't forget cover crops -- things to sow when the plot might be empty. Think about what you can plant in the potato patch when the potatoes are harvested:
- a warm-season cover like buckwheat, that grows quickly and makes good chicken pasture
- a cool-season cover like turnips, that punches holes in the subsoil, and stores nitrogen
- a nitrogen-fixing cover, like hairy vetch, that builds fertility and then winter kills
And don't forget animal forage crops:
- How about buckwheat for chicken pasture?
- Mangel-wurzels make an easy-to-grow pig and chicken forage crop -- and you can feed it to ruminants, too, if you're not satisfied with grass
- Jerusalem artichoke for seed is expensive, but if you planta dozen this year, next year you'll have lots -- and pigs love them
- squashes and pumpkins make great pig and chicken food, with their combination of carbs for energy, protein, and a substantial micronutrient profile. Do you have a favorite heavy-producer in the squash family? Ours is tromboncino, versatile, pest-resistant, and very prolific.
And if you throw in a few flowers -- we like zinnias, marigolds, and nasturtiums -- the garden will look good no matter what happens --
Happy catalog-browsing!