Cover cropping is a great way to enrich garden soil, discourage weeds, and prevent erosion after tilling. At Morningside Community Garden, we tilled a large section of the garden in June and then planted a warm season cover crop.

With the help of Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine students, we seeded sorghum sudangrass, buckwheat, sun hemp, and sunflowers in one section. In another, we seeded fava beans, daikon radishes, and a sunhemp/sorghum sudangrass border.

These cover crop installations are both useful and artistic! Their fun, geometric shapes are like a growing work of art. The first section has already been crimped down and mowed, but is growing back again from seeds that germinated late. This section is going to have a “second wave,” if you will.

This is the final stop on the Morningside Community Garden Discovery Walk. Thanks for visiting and learning more about this community growing and gathering space!

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