Just to update on my cover crop/ rotation experiments. Rats stole every grain of my barley.
I was working in town, when I went out one day it was all gone. Triticale was too late. It actually put out heads just when it was time to cut it down, oh well. Didn't get to see if rats or moose would be fond of it. Flax was also on the late side - too late really for a poor year. Not sure if it produced viable seed, there are some pods on it (cut, hanging). Hey even the peas were late but I don't complain about them do I?
No indeed. Which means I got most of them.
The worst thing about these beds, they were hard and weedy. I had to pull and compost everything anyway, there was no other option for putting the garlic in. Deep digging to loosen the very compacted soil. But the opposite was true of my potato bed. Lovely and soft, loaded with worms! I trenched the potatoes with comfrey and a handful of chicken pellet, as well as the traditional 'dig up weeds, pile em upsidedown around the potaties' . My goodness there were more worms in that bed than my actual compost pile (which is pretty wormy!).
So... grains in the garden hasn't got a lot of raves for this year. Potatoes the old fashioned way is a soil conditioner I will certainly do again, in any weedy bed.