This seed drill is an antique from the horse-drawn era, but it still gets the job done!
This morning I sowed a mix of oats, peas, and radish into a field I ploughed recently.
By doing primary tillage this time of year, I’m giving the soil life time to recover before winter sets in. Establishing a cover crop now will feed this soil life late into the fall and protect the soil from wind and water erosion.
My hope is to be able to transplant next year’s vegetable crop into the cover crop residue with zero or minimal additional tillage.
This is a mix of oats, Austrian winter peas, and Tillage Radish
The Fanning Mill 
Lester
September 16, 2014
Well if I didn’t know ya I’d think you were just trying to be lazy! 🙂 We are sowing mustard to counter some nematode issues. Do you think we could do the same with this? Thx
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songberryfarm
September 16, 2014
Ha! One person’s “lazy” is another person’s “efficient”!
You could probably “no-till” a vegetable crop into the mustard residue next spring, assuming that it has winter-killed. Be aware, however, that for maximum nematode control, the mustard has to be incorporated into the soil while it is still green. There’s a good explanation here: http://plantcovercrops.com/mustard-as-a-cover-crop/
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Adrian Lawson
May 11, 2023
Thiis was lovely to read
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