Thanks for the greenmanure link. It looks like alfalfa would last an entire season. Unfortunately, I don’t know how to kill it without digging. I am guessing I will have to lay down cardboard and then mulch to sheetmulch/smother it. Then I am wondering if there are some negative effects to the soil by doing sheetmulching…
Has anyone heard of Dr. Jill Clapperton, who is no-till, discuss mixing cover crops and being as diversified as possible? Here’s an excerpt from an article that starts discussing her ideas halfway through.
http://www.resilience.org/stories/2014-02-07/edible-ecosystems
“I learned the details at a workshop in Kansas led by Dr. Jill Clapperton, a soil scientist, who told the audience that the key to rebuilding soil health is to start a “conversation among plants.†Cool-season grasses, such as barley, wheat and oats and cool-season broadleaf plants, such as canola, pea, turnip, lentils and mustard, she said, need to dialogue constructively with warm-season grasses, including millet, corn, and sorghum, and warm broadleafs, such as buckwheat, sunflower and sugar beets. Who gets along with whom?”
This is her youtube presentation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6daE2sYegg
