Cover Crops for your Garden
" Good things happen under the covers! "

The Lucas SWCD is excited to offer a selection of cover crop seeds for your backyard garden this fall! We are partnering with Walnut Creek Seeds (Carroll, OH) to offer cover crop mixes and seeds that are well-suited to northwest Ohio. New to cover crops? Check out the "Why Cover Crops" section at the bottom of the page!

To purchase:
1. Visit Lswcd-shop.square.site to place your order online (credit card only)

2. Stop by our office (3350 Hill Ave., Ste. K in Toledo) to fill out an order form (cash, check or credit card accepted in office)

All orders must be picked up at the Lucas SWCD office. 

Available Cover Crops: $7.50 per 1 lb. bag (cover 200-300 square feet)

​Summer Cover Crops (available Spring 2024)

Buckwheat: ​is a broadleaf, short-season cover crop that establishes, blooms, and reaches maturity in 70-90 days. Attracts pollinators with its white blooms and suppresses weeds. Plant through summer as needed.

​**Summer Mix: a complex mix designed to rejuvenate and protect fallow ground through the summer for planting of late, cool season vegetables or fall cover crop. Plant after last frost or when soil is above 65F.

Late Summer/Fall Cover Crops (available Spring 2024)

​Color & Cover Mix: this mix is designed for maximum improvement in soil health and nutrient cycling. Plant August through mid-September. Can be planted around warm season vegetables.

Raised Bed Mix: this mix is designed to provide diverse root structures and organic matter to fortify and amend depleted soils. Attracts pollinators and beneficial insects! Plant August through mid-September.

​Overwintering Cover Crops (available Fall 2024)

Garden Late Cover Mix:  a simple cover crop mix designed to plant with a minimal window prior to first frost and still provide the benefits of a cover crop. Can be planted up until mid October.

**Austrian Winter Pea: a quick growing, excellent source of Nitrogen which provides very good erosion control and breaks down quickly. Can be planted up until late October.

​**Older seed is available at a discounted price of $5. Ask us if interested!

Why Cover Crops?

Cover crop mixes help to reduce erosion and compaction, and increase water permeation in the garden. They also hold minerals normally leached from your soil over the winter. Densely planted cover crops will suppress perennial and winter annual weed growth. The top growth and roots add organic matter to the garden soil. The cover crop’s root system also opens passageways that help improve air and water movement and supports microbial life. This microbial life works synergistically with the roots, bacteria, and fungi to improve soil health.
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All gardens benefit from the use of cover crops, or “green manures”, planted at the end of the season. Tilling, weeding, harvesting, and foot traffic tend to destroy soil structure. Planting cover crops is an easy way to revitalize your soil. Cover crops are planted in vacant space and can be worked into the soil. Traditionally, cover crops are either plowed under, crushed, cut, or pulled and used for mulch or compost. Cutting dense residue may help to avoid the potential negative reactions between rotting residues and new plantings. In addition, composting the cuttings may produce a more balanced soil amendment compared to chopping raw-crop residue directly into the soil.