When the chemistry in the soil is in place, the biology party can begin!  There are air and water spaces in the soil so this life can flourish.  But all this life needs organic matter to eat.  Organic matter is the food that provides a continuous diet for the life in the soil.

When nature is left unattended, it knows what it is doing.  The ground is absolutely covered with plants.  Those plants cover, protect and hold the soil in place keeping it from the forces of erosion.  Animals feed off of those plants and deposit their droppings on the soil.  When the plants die, they feed the life in the soil.

Cover cropping, also know as green manure cropping, follows the same principle.  Many times, cover crops are used on soil that isn't actively raising a crop.  Since we need all the land for vegetable production, we creatively work cover crops in with our existing crop.  For example, when the sweet corn is knee high, we broadcast yellow blossom sweet clover seed.  The clover and corn grow together.  After the corn is harvested, it is mowed so the clover can get more light.  The clover goes dormant over winter and grows back in the spring.  When it is tall enough, it is tilled into the soil.

Between the rows of plastic where we plant vegetables such as melons, tomatoes, cabbage and peppers, we plant white Dutch clover that only gets six inches tall.  It acts as a living mulch.  It keeps the soil covered from erosion and builds up organic matter for the soil.  We plant buckwheat or vetch and rye between the rows of pumpkins and squash.  Just as the pumpkins are about to spread their vines, we lightly till the cover crop.

We continuously use clovers and vetch to build up the nitrogen in the soil and rye, oats and sudan grass to hold the nitrogen in the soil.  We notice a dramatic change in soil tilth from these cover crops. 

This cabbage is planted on plastic with trickle irrigation under the plastic.  Notice the white Dutch clover planted between the rows of plastic.  It is a living mulch that protects the soil from wind and water erosion.  It also helps prevent weeds and will build up the soil with organic matter and become food for soil life.