Aug 18, 2026 · 30 min · 10 segments
Cover crops can protect and improve garden soil during the time of year when our gardens are resting. In this episode, Erin talks with Twinflower Wilkie, a WSU Extension Master Gardener in Ferry…
Twinflower WilkieGuestErin HooverHostSo since we're talking about cover crops today, let's start off with the basics and talk about what cover crops are and why they're good for gardeners to use in their gardens.
Okay, basically when we talk about cover crops, uh, we're talking about a non-food or a non-cash crop.
Uh, your primary goal might be to grow garlic, for instance, but you're using the cover crop to nourish the soil, to replenish the soil, to keep moisture in the soil, to keep down weeds.
So it's there basically for the soil's sake, because having good soil will help the main crop to grow well.
Uh, couple of things that come up is what's the difference between a cover crop and a ground cover, and essentially a ground cover is a specialized cover crop, but it's usually a permanent crop.
It's a perennial that's planted, yes, to suppress weeds, yes, to prevent erosion, but also as a landscaping feature, so a low-lying crop that, um, that provides cover.
And, uh, cover crops usually are annuals which can be either tilled under or mown and provide those same benefits.
So how do cover crops protect the soil and help to build healthy soil?
You'll end up with some weeds in your cover crop unless you have a amazingly weed-free soil.
But, um, a few weeds among the cover crop, they're still biomass, so they're still a usable thing as long as they get mown down or worked in before they go to seed.
You don't want to let your cover crops go to seed either, any more than you do your weeds.
Hairy vetch, for instance, you can find hairy vetch around in landscapes somewhere near a fr- farm where somebody grew hairy vetch.
Um, so why use cover crops? They add organic matter to the soil, either tilled in or mown down.
They often are nitrogen-rich plants, vetches, for instance, legumes, field peas, beans, lentils, all of those types of crops have a nitrogen benefit.
They break up the compacted soil, especially if you use things like, um, root crops.
Sugar beets, mangels, turnips, any of the root crops, or even just something with a long taproot or an expansive root system will break up the soil.
Mustard has recently been found to reduce soil-borne pathogens, so it has a biofumigant property to it, and, uh, nematodes and, and other unhealthy soil bacteria are negatively affected by it.
And moisture retention, of course, especially broad-leaved things like buckwheat will shade the soil, and extensive root systems lets the water percolate through the soil ef- effectively and, um, efficiently.
Also, cover crops are used for forage, and if you happen to have animals, that's a, that's a pretty good return because you feed the forage to the animal, you get the manure, you put the manure on th- the garden, and you've ...
So since we're talking about cover crops today, let's start off with the basics and talk about what cover crops are and why they're good for gardeners to use in their gardens.
Okay, basically when we talk about cover crops, uh, we're talking about a non-food or a non-cash crop.
Uh, your primary goal might be to grow garlic, for instance, but you're using the cover crop to nourish the soil, to replenish the soil, to keep moisture in the soil, to keep down weeds.
So it's there basically for the soil's sake, because having good soil will help the main crop to grow well.
Uh, couple of things that come up is what's the difference between a cover crop and a ground cover, and essentially a ground cover is a specialized cover crop, but it's usually a permanent crop.
It's a perennial that's planted, yes, to suppress weeds, yes, to prevent erosion, but also as a landscaping feature, so a low-lying crop that, um, that provides cover.
And, uh, cover crops usually are annuals which can be either tilled under or mown and provide those same benefits.
So how do cover crops protect the soil and help to build healthy soil?
You'll end up with some weeds in your cover crop unless you have a amazingly weed-free soil.
But, um, a few weeds among the cover crop, they're still biomass, so they're still a usable thing as long as they get mown down or worked in before they go to seed.
You don't want to let your cover crops go to seed either, any more than you do your weeds.
Hairy vetch, for instance, you can find hairy vetch around in landscapes somewhere near a fr- farm where somebody grew hairy vetch.
Um, so why use cover crops? They add organic matter to the soil, either tilled in or mown down.
They often are nitrogen-rich plants, vetches, for instance, legumes, field peas, beans, lentils, all of those types of crops have a nitrogen benefit.
They break up the compacted soil, especially if you use things like, um, root crops.
Sugar beets, mangels, turnips, any of the root crops, or even just something with a long taproot or an expansive root system will break up the soil.
Mustard has recently been found to reduce soil-borne pathogens, so it has a biofumigant property to it, and, uh, nematodes and, and other unhealthy soil bacteria are negatively affected by it.
And moisture retention, of course, especially broad-leaved things like buckwheat will shade the soil, and extensive root systems lets the water percolate through the soil ef- effectively and, um, efficiently.
Also, cover crops are used for forage, and if you happen to have animals, that's a, that's a pretty good return because you feed the forage to the animal, you get the manure, you put the manure on th- the garden, and you've ...
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