Join us for the Lunch & Learn on Tuesday, September 8, when Lee and Amanda Borden teach us how using cover crops can make our soil more fertile, help decrease the watering we need to do, and help our plants thrive.
We all know commercial farmers use cover crops, but most of us don’t think about using cover crops in our garden. Lee and Amanda will explain why cover crops are just as important, and just as helpful, for us as they are for the cotton farmer growing on 2,000 acres.
Here’s a partial list of the benefits cover crops provide:
- They help us increase organic matter in our soil
- They reduce erosion
- They help our soil hold more water so we don’t have to water as much or as often
- Many cover crops dig deep to bring up essential nutrients and deposit them where our plants can use them
- Many cover crops increase the nitrogen available for our plants
The program will begin at noon in the Elmore County Extension Auditorium at 340 Queen Ann Road, Wetumpka, AL. Bring your lunch; drinks will be provided.
Here are the resources mentioned during the program:
• Slides for the program
• Managing Cover Crops Profitably:
http://www.sare.org/Learning-Center/Books/Managing-Cover-Crops-Profitably-3rd-Edition
• Cover Crops for Sustainable Crop Rotations:
http://www.sare.org/Learning-Center/Topic-Rooms/Topic-Briefs/Cover-Crops-for-Sustainable-Crop-Rotations
• Cover Crops for Organic Farms:
http://content.ces.ncsu.edu/cover-crops-for-organic-farms.pdf
• Cover Crops for the Southeast:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/SP2UserFiles/Place/60100500/csr/SlideSets/SS01.pdf
