Tilled the Cover Crop Today in the Pumpkin Patch

The cover crop of winter rye that I planted in early spring was tilled into the ground this evening.  With it I tilled in about 2 pounds of blood meal.  The advantage of a cover crop is it helps keep the soil from getting compacted, it build up the biology in the soil, it loosen up the soil, it helps with soil mineralization and it adds lots of good organic matter to the soil.  A great tip for new growers is to get a cover crop in the ground as soon as you can and then till it into the ground a couple of weeks ahead of the vines.

This is the best cover crop I've ever had.  All of the warm weather in April and then a ton of rain in May really helped it grow.   Now that it is tilled into the soil it will break down quickly.  With warm temperatures, it will mostly be gone in two weeks, just in time for the vines growing all over the place.

Hot in Denver today.  I think it hit around 93 degrees today.  Went from what felt like winter two weeks ago to summer in almost no time at all.  Too warm for plants in hoop houses, but they seemed to do pretty well in spite of the heat.