12 Tips for Growing Cover Crops and Ground Covers – GWC Mag

Soil really shouldn’t be bare. If you think about it, undamaged ground in nature is never bare. It is usually covered in layers of humus, leaves, and other organic matter.

When there is a patch of desolate soil, nature tries its best to get that ground covered up as soon as it can by sending up ‘weeds’ and other pioneer plants that help to repair and rejuvenate the ground.

Growing ground covers and cover crops are wonderful ways to add stability, nutrition, beauty, and sometimes food for you and your garden. Rather than having areas of bare soil, get them covered up as soon as you can with something that will work wonders for your garden, its inhabitants, and you.

1. Edible Ground Covers

If you are tired of mowing the lawn, or you have a big space under a tree that the mower can’t get to so easily, it might be time to think about growing a ground cover. By not mowing, you could save on physical energy, save gas, and save the planet just a little all at the same time. A ground cover is a plant that grows low to the ground and spreads easily, creating a carpet. This living carpet is great for choking out weeds, keeping the soil cool and moist, and even helping with soil erosion by holding loose soil intact. What’s more, if this ground cover is edible and/or medicinal, too, then you are on to a double winner! Check out these 4 Edible Ground Covers for Your Garden.

2. Ground Covers for Outside the Garden

Ground covers, sometimes quite literally, get overshadowed by the behemoths towering over them. Many of us fill in the gaps as an afterthought. But, groundcovers play important roles in and out of the garden, far more than just taking up space. Ground covers can be below trees, on the lawn, and along borders. They protect the soil from drying out in the sun and from getting overrun with weeds. They provide a habitat for beneficial insects, wildlife, and worms. They attract pollinators. They can even provide us with food. Simply put, ground covers deserve some attention, so let’s take a look at 10 Edible Groundcovers to Grow Outside the Garden.

3. Mint Family Ground Covers

We unknowingly use the mint family (Labiatae, aka Lamiaceae) far more than that, and with a turn back to self-sufficiency, we could be using it more than we already do. The cousins, uncles, and siblings of what we recognize as mint (the Mentha genus) carry a wide array of notable flavors for cooking, medicinal values for home remedies, and ecological benefits for the garden. There is so much more to mint than toothpaste and dessert plates. If you have the space to let some of the members of the Mint family run wild and create an enduring ground cover then check out A Guide to the Mint Family: There Are Members You Never Knew Were Mint.

4. Moss

Mosses are mysterious entities. They are often found in the depths of darkness, perched precariously on rocks or loitering around the roots of trees. Many species manage to have vibrant colors, and mosses seem to grow—save a rolling stone—where nothing else would dream of taking root. Though often thought of as inhabiting moist places, some mosses grow in deserts in baking sunshine. They grow in Antarctica. They grow in the tropics. There seems no rhyme or reason. Suffice it to say, that despite there being more than 12,000 species all around the world, many of us would feel comfortable calling moss strange. Well, it’s also quite amazing, and in the reboot of sustainable living, it’s becoming more and more common. Learn all about The Wonderful World of Moss: A Little Sustainable Plant That Deserves Attention.

5. Cover Crops Instead of Grass

Those high-maintenance, weed-and-feed grass lawns are quickly becoming a thing of the past. Homeowners have realized that grass lawns are not good for the environment because they require so much maintenance, which means energy (petroleum) and resources (water), and that maintenance also creates a constant drain on the pocketbook. The next alternative is growing lawns with low-maintenance alternatives to grass. These are plants that stay low, cover the soil, and make lovely landscapes. There are tons of choices for those interested in doing a more environmentally friendly lawn. Here are 8 Plants That Are Not Grass To Use for Low-Maintenance Lawns.

6. Fall Cover Crops

Cover crops are planted near the end of the growing season after viable harvests have been gotten. The seeds are sown thickly so that they occupy the entire garden space, allowing no room for weeds. They grow as much as possible before the winter cold makes everything dormant or dead. Then, in late winter or early spring, the crops are cut so that the roots can decompose beneath the soil and the debris can act like rich, organic natural mulch. As all of the organic matter breaks down, it feeds the organisms in the soil, and that creates fertility, replenishing macro- and micro-nutrients. If you are interested in feeding your garden this fall, check out The Ins & Outs of Fall Cover Crops to Reinvigorate Your Garden Soil for Next Spring.

7. Winter Cover Crops

When growing gardens, one of the most important parts of doing it sustainably is keeping the soil fertile. Of course, it’s best to avoid doing this chemically because that would not be good for our food or the environment, and in fact, it ultimately is not good for the soil either. Many organic gardeners opt to add compost and natural amendments every year. But, one of the great tricks of the trade, the one most likely overlooked, is growing winter cover crops. They are grown as a gift back to our garden beds, something just for them because they so willingly feed our fruits and vegetables for the rest of the year. With that in mind, winter is the perfect time for doing this because, of course, most of the gardening we do happens from spring to fall. Read on to learn How to Use Winter Cover Crops to Keep Gardens Fertile.

8. Cover Crops

In permaculture, most of the time we promote finding perennial varieties of food crops, as they are less demanding of the soil and the gardener. However, many of the vegetables we’ve come to love and enjoy regularly are annual plants, requiring new cultivation each year. While most gardeners are willing to put in the effort to get these veggies, we also must consider the soil, which supplies the food for our crops. Annual vegetables are very hungry plants, and if grown relentlessly in the same space, they can zap the soil of the nutrients needed to grow more. That’s why good gardeners take the time to both rest their garden beds, as well as revitalize them. One of the favorite, most effective ways of doing this is using a cover crop. Click here to learn more about Cover Crop and Why You Should Use Them.

9. Ground Covers for Weeds

The thing about weeds is that they are typically very successful, vigorous plants that can take over a space much more readily than, say, a crop of carrots or a stand of beans. When we want to grow something specific to eat rather than eating whatever grows, even edible weeds can be a real problem. With that in mind, it’s helpful to know natural ways of keeping weeds out of the garden, and oftentimes, the best methods are contrary to what has been happening conventionally for the last few decades. So, forget the weed killers. Forget a daily regimen of pulling. It’s just a matter of taking the right approach from the get-go. Here are 10 Tips for Keeping the Weeds Out of the Garden without Constantly Having to Pull Them including cover crops.

10. Nitrogen-Fixing Ground Covers

Most plants grow such that their roots wiggle and wind into the soil picking up nutrients from what’s around. Plants, in particular, love to find little deposits of nitrogen in the ground, which is their version of a stomach filler, the main dietary fuel of the plant world. Plants need nitrogen to create protein so that they grow and chlorophyll to photosynthesize, so it’s essential for growing a good garden or even a lawn. There are a group of select plants that have a special talent: they take nitrogen from the air (roughly 78% of it is nitrogen gas) and convert it into nitrogen in the ground, where roots can suck it in as a nutrient. These plants, then, can create their own source of nitrogen fertilizer. Thus, they are called nitrogen-fixing plants. Read on for more information about What Are Nitrogen-Fixing Plants and Why You Should Be Growing Them.

11. Strawberries as a Ground Cover

Strawberries make people happy. They do it when they are fresh and juicy, warm from the sun. They do it when they are freeze-dried and reconstituted in oatmeal. They work in pies, cakes (so much so that they have a cake all their own: Strawberry Shortcake), and homemade ice cream. They’ll spruce up an otherwise plain bowl of cereal. They’ll make a salad with a little balsamic vinaigrette and some walnuts in the mix, something to talk about later. They are just delicious in so many ways. They are prolific growers and will provide food for half a decade before tiring out. But, not to worry, they are also very easy to reproduce. Read on to find out The Ins and Outs of Growing Your Own Strawberries.

12. Nasturtium as a Ground Cover

Nasturtium (Tropaeolum) is an annual plant that can be grown easily in containers or your garden as an excellent ground cover. Nasturtium has big, round green leaves and large, beautiful flowers, usually red, orange, or yellow. As an annual, you have to sow seeds each spring, but one wonderful thing about nasturtiums is that they self-seed very well, meaning they drop their seeds onto the ground and stay dormant over the winter. Come springtime, new nasturtium plants pop up as if by magic. As well as making your garden look glorious, nasturtiums also work well as a companion plant. In addition to attracting the naughty bugs, they are also a favorite for our pollinator friends the bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. Learn How to Grow and Use Nasturtium and use it as a gorgeous cover crop.

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