The Yellow Farmhouse Garden

September 12, 2019

Growing buckwheat to improve your garden

Filed under: Cover crops,Weeds — Tags: , , , , , , , , , — bob @ 3:56 pm

I’m a big fan of cover crops both on the farm and in the garden. Cover crops are not harvested, instead they’re used for other purposes such as preventing erosion or improving soil tilth.

One of my favorite cover crops is buckwheat, the same plant that gives us grain for buckwheat pancakes. It is very fast growing, so fast in fact, that it will beat out most weeds in a race to the finish.

For use as a cover crop, buckwheat can be planted any time during the growing season. If planted early, it will mature quick enough that you’ll be able to till it into the soil and grow a second crop if need be. I often grow a late crop of buckwheat that gets tilled into the soil. I then follow that with a crop of winter rye. Growing buckwheat as a grain to harvest is a different story.

This time of the year I’m growing buckwheat for a few reasons. First, it makes a fine placeholder in the garden, a kind of living mulch. If I have a large spot that is not going to be planted, I’ll sow it with buckwheat. It keeps the area from being overrun with weeds by overpowering and smothering them.

Buckwheat helps maintain soil fertility. While it grows, it picks up and holds minerals in its leaves, stems and roots. Later, when the plant is eventually tilled into the soil, those minerals will be released back into the soil for the next crop to use. Plus, plenty of valuable organic material from the roots and tops will improve topsoil.

Buckwheat’s flowers produce an enormous amount of nectar making it a valuable plant for honeybees and other pollinating insects. For example, an acre of buckwheat can provide enough nectar to allow honeybees to produce as much as 150 pounds of honey. Less than a month after planting, buckwheat will begin to flower and not long after, seeds will appear. It will continue producing flowers and seeds until frost. Its flowering habit provides honeybees with a source of food when few other plants are flowering.

Buckwheat produces nectar only in the morning, you won’t see bees in your buckwheat during the afternoon.

Buckwheat produces nectar only in the morning, you won’t see bees in your buckwheat during the afternoon.

 

Seeds are available online and at rural farm supply stores. Plant buckwheat by scattering the seeds over the surface of a freshly tilled area so that the seeds end up being around three or four inches apart. Then rake the area to cover the seeds with soil.

Buckwheat can re-seed itself and sometimes become a minor annoyance the following year. If you find that’s the case in your garden, mow or till it before it produces too many seeds.

Bob

 

 

November 14, 2017

Canada geese and rye seeds

Filed under: Animals,Cover crops — bob @ 6:35 am

One of the best things you can do for your garden is to plant winter rye; the same crop that farmers grow for flour that eventually gets made into rye bread. Last year at this time I wrote a couple of posts about how to sow rye. You can scroll back and find those posts if you’d like to read about it.

This year I planted my rye about ten days later than usual — big mistake. Not only was it late for planting, it turned out to be the middle of the Canada goose migration.

I carefully prepared the soil by removing weeds and debris. Then I mowed the finer textured plant material that was left. Next, I roto-tilled to make a nice seed bed.Broadcasting the rye with a seed/fertilizer spreader works good, which is what I did. Since my original plan was not to rake in the seed, I doubled the recommended seeding rate. With that all of that done I was sure the garden was all set for a long winter’s nap.

A couple of geese had discovered all of that rye seed laying on top of the ground in my garden and decided to help themselves to a free meal. It wasn’t long before other migrating geese looked down and saw what was happening in my garden. It turned out to be a free-for-all once they landed.To a goose, the seed must look like an easy meal.To a goose, the seed must look like an easy meal.

 

By the time I checked my garden a couple of days later, it was all over. Not a seed could I find, the garden looked like it had been used as a feed lot. Goose tracks covered every square inch. They ate all 100 pounds of my rye seed in one day.

I re-seeded again the next day only this time I raked in the seed and surrounded the garden with wooded stakes with twine strung between then. The twine is about a foot off of the ground and has some plastic ribbon tied to it. That seems to be enough to deter them.

Canada Geese are strong, graceful flyers and are at home on the water. But on land, they’re at a disadvantage. They can waddle to move short distances but can’t run very fast or negotiate obstacles very well. Being on land makes them more vulnerable to predators than when they’re in the water or flying. That twine is just enough to to make them nervous about getting tangled up so they stay out of the garden. A few strands of twine criss-crossed inside the garden reinforces the effect.

If we have a mild late-fall, my rye may have enough time to germinate and get established. If not I’ll have learned a valuable lesson about putting off planting my cover crop.

Bob

 

June 28, 2017

Buckwheat controls weeds and helps honey bees

Filed under: Cover crops,Grain — Tags: , , — bob @ 6:23 am

I have an area in the garden that I will not be able to plant this year. Instead of letting it stay fallow and grow weeds, I planted buckwheat. It’s something I’ve done through the years whenever I’ve been unable to use an area for one reason or another.

Buckwheat is a fast growing plant that will out compete most weeds. Planting buckwheat allows me to place-hold that unused garden area while reducing weeds at the same time. It also takes up mineral nutrients from that soil that are unavailable to other plants. Those minerals are incorporated into the growing plant. Eventually, I’ll cut down the buckwheat and till it into the soil. As it decomposes, all those minerals will be released back into the soil in a form that other plants can use.

Buckwheat is not an actual wheat at all. Wheat is a type of cultivated grass, buckwheat on the other hand, is a broad-leaf plant.  While regular wheat forms inconspicuous flowers that are hidden, buckwheat grows a profusion of while flowers. Those flowers are very attractive to honeybees and other pollinators. The dark, strong flavored honey that results from buckwheat nectar is highly prized by some honey aficionados.

Many years ago when I first started beekeeping, that dark buckwheat honey was considered a low quality product. Now that has all changed and buckwheat honey is often sold at a premium.

Buckwheat seeds have a distinctive pyramid shape.

Buckwheat seeds have a distinctive pyramid shape.

Planting buckwheat is a simple process. Till the spot you’re planting, spread some seed over the area and lightly rake it into the soil. Figure on using a couple pounds of seed per thousand square feet. In a few days you’ll see the young buckwheat plants emerge from the soil. If after a week or so of growing, some of your planting looks a little thin, sow more seed to fill in the area. Buckwheat can cover a space up to ten inches in diameter but an open spot larger that a foot across will allow weeds to grow.

I’ll keep you updated on the progress the buckwheat makes through the growing season.

Bob

May 31, 2017

Boot stage is the time to till under rye cover crop

Filed under: Cover crops,Grain — Tags: , , , , — bob @ 8:01 am

The rye cover crop I planted last fall made tremendous growth this spring. The plan all along was to till it into the soil before planting a week or so before planting.

Timing is important when it comes to tilling under a cover crop like rye. The plants grew and entered the “boot stage” of growth, forming flower/seed heads inside the stalk. This is the ideal time to till rye into the soil. At that stage the plants are about 20-24 inches tall.

rye3

You can feel the flower/seed head forming inside the stalk during the boot stage.

I thought the garden was quite fertile, and it is, but the spots that received a little heavier application of compost last fall are much greener, taller and are developing seed heads earlier. It’s a good demonstration about the benefits of compost.

As you would expect, areas with more compost were taller and a deeper green color.

As you would expect, areas with more compost were taller and a deeper green color.

The plants were too tall for the rototiller to handle on its own. I had a couple of options, either kill the rye with an herbicide like Roundup, which is what most of the conventional farmers do, or mow it. Since I’m trying to keep it an organic garden, I mowed.

Twenty inches tall sounds like a lot for a mower to handle but rye is very tender and juicy in the boot stage — they are almost all water. If I had mowed it before the boot stage, the plants would have grown back just like a lawn. If I waited too much longer, the plants would have been tougher and drier as they begin to form seeds. That would have made it much more difficult to till and would leave too much coarse plant material in the soil. The chopped up rye dried and left a fine textured residue that was very easy to till.

Mowing stops the growth of rye

The stubble after mowing is about five inches tall. Notice, there are no weeds present.

Plant growth stage was not the only thing I was checking, I was looking at soil moisture too. All the rain we had last week left the soil temporarily saturated but it dried fairly quickly.  Tilling a garden that is too wet destroys its soil structure negating most of the benefits that a cover crop provides. The rye along with winter freezing and thawing improved the soil structure by forming loose aggregates of soil particles leaving plenty of space for roots to grow.

The winter rye residue was easily incorporated into the soil b y the rototiller

The winter rye residue was easily incorporated into the soil b y the rototiller

Another very visible advantage to this cover crop was the lack of weeds this spring. By this time the garden would have been full of all kinds of broad leaf weeds and grasses. Dandelions would have come and gone by now. The rye did its job and out-competed virtually all other plants giving me a head start over the weeds this year.

Bob

 

 

 

February 14, 2017

Winter cover crops undergo changes

Filed under: Cover crops — bob @ 1:11 pm

We’ve all heard that old expression, ” It’s like watching grass grow”. We’ll that’s kind of what this blog post is about. No, wait, that’s exactly what this post is about. Not to worry though, I’ve done all the boring work for you by watching that grass grow. So there’s no need to click away from here yet.

The grass I’m talking about is the rye I planted in the garden last fall as a cover crop. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, go back a few pages in this blog and  you’ll find a couple of posts about it.

Just by looking at the rye, not much has changed visually except much of it was grazed by geese, rabbits and other small animals. That won’t hurt it though. It’s not as bad as animals grazing on your lettuce for example.

Although you can’t see it, the rye has undergone a major transformation. Because of the effects of the cold winter temperatures, the plants have experienced a process called “vernalization”. This cold period radically changes the internal processes of the plants enabling them complete their lifecycle by growing flowers and eventually forming seeds.

The tender leaves of young rye plants were enjoyed by various grazing animals this winter.

The tender leaves of young rye plants were enjoyed by various grazing animals this winter.

Without those several days of freezing temperatures, rye plants would not be able to reproduce. Other cereal crops like winter wheat and winter barley require similar vernalization. Oats on the other hand are not winter hardy therefore don’t require vernalization to form seeds.

I had a discussion with a soil conservation technician last fall. He mentioned this was one of the few times he’s come across a garden with a winter cover crop. Maybe he has not been looking in the right places, I’m sure many readers of this blog use cover crops in their gardens. You’re welcome to share your cover crop experiences with other readers in the comment section below

To me watching grass grow is not boring at all — watching paint dry, well, that’s a whole different story.

Bob

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