My little cover crop is coming up beautifully. We cultivated and planted every second row through the orchard, trying to remove and outcompete the weedy, clumpy paspalum grass and bring some life and organic matter back into the soils. The barley has sprinted away first – its big seed helping it to get a good start. Clover is just starting to germinate. In other rows I’m trying grazing wheat plus clover and rye-corn plus clover. I’m hoping to be able to get two cuts of mulch to go under the tree line – curious to see which of the cereals handles that best.
Dandelions and clover are coming back in the other rows – they’ll be good for the bees. It’s so good to see life again after the big dry (my drip irrigation is only in the treeline and the interrows were awfully dry in the drought). It’s so exciting to finally have enough rain to give this cover crop a go. I’m expecting to need to cultivate again to win my war on paspalum, after that I hope to plant down a mix of different plants. Then we can start on the other rows – here’s hoping we don’t have another long drought to set it back.
Isn’t the autumn colour just beautiful?