Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... For an Earth-friendly garden, keep a succession of plants in the soil by planting cover crops. These are plants grown to improve the soil rather than for ...

Before you put your garden to bed, consider giving it a winter blanket—aka, a cover crop. Sowed in the fall, these cold-hardy plants work hard to improve soil throughout winter by decreasing ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – No one wants to think of harvest’s end as the vegetable garden reaches peak, but now’s the time to plant over-winter cover crops to improve your soil for next season. If you’re not ...

A three-year Penn State study shows planting green boosts predator activity, helps limit slugs, maintains yields and ...

As the growing season winds down, you might think your garden has reached its final stage for the year. But mid-November can still be a great time to improve your soil and prepare for next spring with ...

DES MOINES, Iowa — Called cover crops, they top the list of tasks U.S. farmers are told will build healthy soil, help the environment and fight climate change. Yet after years of incentives and ...

Establishing winter cover crops after or between harvests can be a great way to preserve soil structure, protect against erosion and produce biomass that feeds the soil ecology. However, if you’re in ...

What are cover crops and why would I want to use them in my home garden? We all know that the foundation of a great garden is healthy, nutrient-rich soil. There are many ways to improve the ...

As the combines start rolling across the country farmers are focused on taking the crops off the land. However, it’s a great time for farmers to also be thinking about planting cover crops to help ...

AMES, Iowa – As vegetable growers and commodity farmers reach the end of the growing season and harvest their crops, faculty at Iowa State University are pushing for greater awareness of cover crops ...

Three thousand years ago, farmers in China nurtured their soil with a technique I am just now exploring. Those ancient farmers understood, no doubt from experience, that leaving their soil bare over ...