Cover Crops: October 1 at Cottage Grove Garden Club

A cover crop is a crop of plants grown primarily to benefit the soil rather than yield a crop. They are often used in the off-season, after harvesting, and may grow over the winter. Cover crops can help increase your soil fertility and can bring many improvements to the health of your garden.

Crimson Clover

On October 1st, Christina Bixel with the OSU Extension Master Gardeners will join the Cottage Grove Garden Club to talk about cover crops. In this program, Christina will discuss how a small investment in a cover crop can bring a myriad of benefits to your soil. She will also discuss the best varieties to grow, when to sow them, and different methods to incorporate these amazing “green manure” crops into your garden planning schedule. Come join us and get a whole new perspective on cover crops!

Christina has been an OSU Extension Master Gardener since 2012, with a specialty in plant diagnostics and additional training in composting. She is the past president of the Lane County Master Gardeners Association and provides lectures throughout the county on a wide range of topics.

The Cottage Grove Garden Club is a local organization with the mission of expanding our interests and building lifelong friendships while bettering our community and the environment through sustainable gardening practices.

Christina will present Cover Crops Tuesday October 1, at Cottage Grove Garden Club, meeting at the First Presbyterian Church, 216 South 3rd Street (enter off the garden on 3rd Street). The Garden Club’s informal business meeting begins at 6PM and the presentation begins at 7PM. Guests and visitors welcome.

Gardeners and Climate Change

When gardeners maximize carbon storage without making too much global-warming pollution in the process, we slow the pace of climate change. Here are some ideas:

Protect your soil and keep it healthy 

• Cover exposed ground to decrease water use, curb erosion, and protect soil microbes. Try using mulch, leaving plants after they’ve died back, growing ground covers, strategically allowing weeds, or planting winter vegetables.
• Read instructions on fertilizers. Improper use can damage beneficial soil.

Plant trees 

• Trees can absorb/store as much as a ton of atmospheric carbon pollution.
• Shade trees planted near a home can reduce energy used for summer cooling.

Grow your own food 

• Try inter-planting veggies in the ornamental garden, planting fruit trees, or growing food in containers.

Compost 

• Composting reduces waste going to landfills, increases soil quality, and improves nutrition levels in the foods you grow.

Reduce or eliminate use of synthetic chemicals 

• Synthetic herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers kill beneficial organisms in the soil. Gardening chemical-free also reduces your costs.

Reduce the use of gas-powered garden tools 

• Use human-power more often (for example, use a rake not a leaf blower).
• Reduce or eliminate the need for gas-powered tools (for example, remove your grass lawn altogether).

Be a curious, informed gardener 

• We can all learn more. Talk with other gardeners, experiment, pay attention to changes in the garden, be curious.
• Join Cottage Grove Garden Club, where we often talk about these topics.


The Cottage Grove Garden Club meets the first Tuesday of the month, from 6-8 pm, in the Friendship Hall at the First Presbyterian Church, 216 South 3rd Street (the corner of 3rd and Adams), Cottage Grove, Oregon.

References

Fine Gardening: https://www.finegardening.com/article/gardening-in-a-changing-climate

Victory Gardens: https://www.greenamerica.org/climate-victory-gardening-101

Cornell: http://climatechange.cornell.edu/gardening/

EPA: https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2014-04/documents/greenscaping_-_the_easy_way_to_a_greener_healthier_yard.pdf

NWF: https://www.nwf.org/Our-Work/Environmental-Threats/Climate-Change/Greenhouse-Gases/Gardening-for-Climate-Change