Hey there,
This warm and rainy weather has got veggies and weeds growing fast. As the veggies are harvested we mow down and then work up any veg and weed bits to reincorporate back into the soil. Some beds may be left and then seeded into a cover crop to rest until next year, while others will be worked up, tided up, and then replanted into another crop for late summer or fall.
Some of the plants we use for cover crops are winter rye, clover, turnips and sunflowers. Cover crops are used to protect the soil from erosion, nutrients leaching, aeration, to be mowed and worked in as a green manure for more organic matter, and weed suppression. Some die with the frost, while others over winter and keep the soil covered. There are many different kinds and combos of cover crop and they are becoming more and more popular. Even many conventional farmers are integrating cover crops into their 3 crop (corn, beans, wheat) rotations. Under-seeding corn or wheat with clover, or planting a variety of different crops after wheat is harvested around now, to when they would plant corn in the spring.
A lot of the time, before I mow and work up a bed, I will pull up any small, deformed or damaged veggies and bring them up for the pigs, bunnies or chickens. They all love the greens, though can be a bit picky when it comes to other things. The pigs will dig into a beet, but after eating the greens, will avoid turnip roots. Chickens love swiss chard, and the bunnies destroy carrot tops.
One of the nice things about growing the veggies along with the animals and compost, nothing really feels like it is wasted. What ever isn't eaten or sold by us, is recycled through the animals or the compost back into feeding the next round of veggies.
