Spring Fling (Garden)
Spring Fling (Garden)
Use Mother Nature’s recipe of high plant diversity to heal your garden this year for a healthier garden next year.
Step 1
Sow. Scatter. Water
Wait until the soil is 4 degrees C. (Early May)
Dedicate a section of your garden to the Spring Fling blend for one year. (1/4 of total garden)
If tilled soil: scatter on approx. 50 seeds/square ft.
If zero-till: create 1-inch deep trenches, 12 inches apart. Scatter seeds roughly 1 inch apart in trench.
Rake/fill in trench covering seeds
Water for 3 consecutive days
Step 2
Stomp Into Soil
Approx. 45 days from seeding, incorporate back into the soil.
Do this by stomping or mulch mowing.
Let re-grow into winter. Stomp again if needed. (before seed set)
WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?
The idea behind stomping the cover crop down is to mimic the actions of a roaming herd of herbivores. This sends the plants back into vegetation allowing for maximum photosynthesis and sugars being fed to the soil food web.
STEP 3
Grow Next Year’s Garden
If tilling: let Spring Fling continue to grow until one week prior to planting your vegetable garden.
If zero-tilling: cover with a tarp (to kill plant re-growth) two weeks prior to planting your vegetable garden.
Rotate Spring Fling to the next 1/4 of your garden
STEP 4
Enjoy Healthier Garden Produce
As Jon Stika in A Soil Owner’s Manual so eloquently puts it; “We must learn to manage plants to feed the soil, so the soil can feed the plants.” (Stika, 2016).
HEALTHY SOIL = HEALTHY PLANTS = HEALTHY HUMANS
Spring Fling
Plant Species In Blend
GRASSES: Forage Barley, Forage Oats, Spring Wheat, Annual Rye Grass, Cereal Rye, German Millet, Sorghum Sudan
LEGUMES: Forage Peas, Hairy Vetch, Red Clover, Cowpeas
BROADLEAVES: Sunflower, Sugar Beet, Flax, Buckwheat