Green Beans and Peas

Our vegetable garden has five rows, each about 30 feet long.  Except for some perennial asparagus, the crops vary and are rotated annually.  With the winter behind us, this weekend we started planting a cover crop of green beans and peas throughout the empty garden.  Not only will these be edible when they mature, but they will discourage weeds thus reducing our reliance on chemicals, and retain moisture thereby cutting back on our use of water.  They will also give the area a pleasant uniform appearance.  If the cover crop is turned under before flowering, the plants will actually increase the nitrogen in the soil, or so I am told.  Next weekend we will finish with snow peas and cow peas.  The soil was amended with compost and manure in the fall, so no only a light tilling to remove weeds was required.

The 48" stick is marked at 3" intervals to serve as a guide

for spacing seeds.  The sheet of plywood prevents 

compacting the soil with bootprints while planting.