Pairing Tarping With Cover Crops: Getting Both On The Menu.

Tarps can taste better when they are mixed with other soil building practices. Cover crops help keep soil covered, maintain active roots, feed soil biology, and add organic matter through living plants. How can we use tarps to reduce tillage while adding cover crops? Tarps are being used to kill winter hardy cover crops, like rye and vetch, and when it is too late to get those cover crops in the ground, tarps are covering bare soil overwinter in preparation for early spring. Hear from Ben Stein (Edible Uprising Farm – Troy, NY) and Janna Siller (Adamah – Falls Village, CT) on their cash crop and cover crop planning, what fall management looks like, and how they are setting up for no-till planting when tarps come off. We also discussed pathway management and how tarps are fitting in with different mulches, from the living to the leaves.