Dealing with a Barley cover crop and getting it ready for your garden.
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Hi, this is John Traunfeld, the university of Maryland extension. I planted some barley in this vegetable bed last fall by April 1st it was about 18 inches high and I really want to get my spring vegetables in. So what do we do with this barley cover crop? Couple of different options. What you're looking at is the result of smothering it with a tarp for three weeks. It's not completely dead, but we could come in and mow it now close to the ground and turn it under. We could also just mow it and plant our vegetables right into the residues. I'm also going to put the tarp back on and leave it for a week or two to completely kill it. Option three would be to mow the barley when it's 18 or 20 inches high and then turn it over with a spade. You'd still have to let it sit for a couple of weeks decomposing before you could plant your spring vegetables.
