In beautiful Potomac Overlook Regional Park

Photo©2016 Puja Gellerman
Many people, when thinking about growing vegetables, associate spring with the beginning of effort. They would be wrong. The truth is that many of us who grow vegetables in our region of northernmost Virginia garden nearly year-round. So, while seeding of the garden started with our first work party on March 16th, we really set up the growing season last fall with cover crops of rye, vetch, crimson clover, and Austrian peas, depending on what we planned to rotate into those beds in 2016. Putting down winter cover crops ensures that in early spring, the soil will be rich in nitrogen and well nourished by the deep roots of those cover crops. When we cut down these crops, starting in March, we cut up the green tops and shovel them under to create lighter, richer soil. Nothing goes to waste. (Except for compost and organic blood meal, added only when planting, we use NO insecticides, chemicals, or other additives).