How to Plant Winter Field Peas as a Cover Crop
Do you want an easy way to feed your soil and protect it from erosion over winter? Plant a winter cover crop of winter field peas to improve the soil.
Do you want an easy way to feed your soil and protect it from erosion over winter? Plant a winter cover crop of winter field peas to improve the soil.
The cover crops also are a living mulch that keep the soil from eroding from wind, rain and any other nasty weather.
Austrian winter field peas is one such crop that does quite well and is actually hardy. This means it won’t completely be killed off by freezing temperatures. While the plants won’t grow if it is too cold, they will continue growing in spring once the air and soil temperature increases.
And the blooms add some colour to the spring garden for a short period of time before you cut them down.
Preparing Winter Field Pea Seeds
You will need to buy some winter field pea seeds. You may be able to find them locally in a nursery or garden centre but if not, you can also purchase them online:
Rhizobium bacteria helps legume (eg. peas, beans) crops such as the winter field peas fix nitrogen in the soil. What this means is that nitrogen in the air is actually captured by the plants and then in turn released in the soil when the plants die or are cut down.
Nitrogen is key to having great soil health.
While you may already have this bacteria established in your soil, adding extra bacteria will not do any harm. Again you may find this locally. If not, it’s also available on Amazon:
