Researchers have discovered that using cover crops as "living mulch" between rows of maize can significantly improve soil health and nutrient cycling, offering a sustainable approach to agricultural ...

Hairy vetch (Vicia villosa) blooming. What are cover crops and how do they build soil? Follow these planting methods and reliable cover crop options to solar-charge your soil and improve soil ...

Cover crops are plants that are planted to cover the soil to keep it in place and improve soil health. They can be intercropped with other crops or planted after harvesting. The crops are mainly grown ...

A farm attendant doing mulching at a cabbage farm in Kisumu county. [Denish Ochieng, Standard] Want to improve your soil? Plant cover crops. A cover crop is grown primarily for the benefit of the soil ...

Weeds steal water, light, and nutrients from a vegetable garden. Learn the best ways to keep weeds out of your vegetable ...

White clover serves as the premier living mulch system over any other legume. It is robust, resilient and competitive. It produces nice, green walkways and builds soils. It outcompetes weeds, is easy ...

While the practice of no-till gardening is not new, information has traditionally centered on agricultural field crops. Now, home gardeners are catching on. “The concept of no-till has been around for ...

Although there really isn’t an “offseason” when crops don’t grow well here in the Bay Area, I am always amazed by the number of gardeners I know who don’t plant a cool-season garden. Since I come from ...

Researchers tested the effects of vetch residue management strategies incorporating green manure using a roller-crimper and different organic fertilizers on organic zucchini yield and quality. When ...

First, the bad news: We’ve lost millions of tons of soil from croplands in the United States annually for the past 20 years due to water and wind erosion. The rate of erosion skyrockets the more soil ...

Cereal rye is a go-to cover crop for many producers, including organic growers looking to avoid a chemical method of weed control. Eric Yu is a University of Minnesota Extension educator on crops ...