So after much stuffing around with the temperamental rotary hoe over the weekend, I managed to get everything (well almost everything) dug up over where I want to put the pumpkins. Here is a video showing what I did
I was impressed with the amount of worms and life their seemed to be in the soil it seemed to have a lot of good soil characteristics to it. This year I’m not getting a soil test done, and I will cover all about my reasons for that in a future post.
If you haven’t seen the previous post on what over crops are out there, check it out by clicking this link.
My cover crop choice is: Kings Seeds green Manure mix – This is a product which contains 3 different types of plants and is made up of 60% Peas, 20% Oats and 20% Lupin.
After a lot of consideration it was the one that gave a lot of cover crop from the three different seeds, it is good at breaking up soil pans and is nitrogen fixing and it also seemed more suitable for planting around this time more then a lot of other options.
I was also looking at sowing mustard, which has great characteristics but can also upset the soil by damaging the microbes in the soil, something I am trying not to do.
Sowing the cover crop – Make sure you have enough
In this video I’m talking about the cover crop I am using. For some reason on the day my mathematical skills let me down and I actually need more seed to sow then the one packet. After digging the soil over I noticed a lot of bird activity getting worms etc, they have been there when I checked on the sown seeds and I have a feeling they have been eating the seeds, only time will tell though.
Info on Kings Seeds green manure mix
Ready made mix for green manure, breaking up soil pans and nitrogen fixing.Contains 60% Peas, 20% Oats and 20% Lupin. Best for spring sowing but suitable for sowing right through to late summer. Mid and late summer sowing may be left to winter over and plowed in during spring to suit your garden schedule.Sow at a rate of 1kg per 40m2 or 100kg per acre and cover seed lightly.
What patch prep are you doing this year?
I’d love to hear from other pumpkin growers and what they are up to this year, leave a comment below, on the Facebook page or flick me an email via the contact page.
