Did you know that oats are the perfect, easy care, low cost cover crop for your raised beds in the fall? Plain and simple, if you want to protect and recharge your raised bed soil this fall, oats are one of the best cover crops you can grow. They are inexpensive, easy to plant and incredibly effective at restoring tired soil!
Raised beds lose valuable nutrients and organic matter as vegetables, herbs and flowers grow. And because the soil is confined, it cannot naturally replenish itself from the surrounding landscape. Without help, it becomes less fertile and productive with every passing season.
Although fertilizer can replace some missing nutrients, it cannot rebuild healthy soil structure. That is where oats shine. Their roots loosen compacted soil and add valuable organic matter—all while protecting the surface from weeds, erosion and nutrient loss!
Why Oats Are The Perfect Cover Crop For Your Raised Beds
How A Cover Crop Protects & Recharges Your Raised Beds
So how can a cover crop help your raised beds this fall? A cover crop’s roots help to break up the soil and keep it loose and workable. At the same time, as it grows, it protects your soil from erosion. When raised bed soil is left bare, its nutrients can quickly wash and blow away from winter’s rains, snow and wind.
Even more, as a fall cover crop grows thick, it protects the soil from weeds. The dense growth of a cover crop helps to crowd out existing weeds and weed seeds. All while protecting the soil from any additional weed seeds from blowing in and taking up residence.
So are all cover crops the same? Especially when it comes to powering and protecting the soil within them? Although there are several good choices for cover cropping raised beds, there is one that stands head and shoulders above the crowd – and that cover crop choice is cereal oats!
The Power Of Growing Oats
Oats have a long list of attributes when cover cropping raised beds. For starters, the cereal grain is one of the least expensive of all seeds when it comes to cover crops. But even better, it grows incredibly fast!
Not only are oats fast to germinate, once they sprout, they grow quickly to thicken up and cover bare soil. Oats can germinate in as little as five to seven days. And they can do so even in the cooler and wet conditions that often accompany the fall season.
Adding to their allure, oats can adapt to nearly any soil condition. Oats grow equally well in loamy, rich soils, harder, dense clay types – and everything in between. Best of all, they require little to no maintenance once you plant. Not only are they highly drought resistant, they can also handle excessive moisture fairly well too.
Even More Reasons To Plant Oats This Fall
So what do cereal oats do for your raised bed soil? As oats grow and establish, their roots dig in underneath to help aerate, break up and loosen the soil. Up top, the foliage of the grain grows thick and tight, crowding out weeds and weed seeds.
Oats also add a tremendous amount of organic matter and nutrients to the soil as they break down. As important as the nutrients are for recharging your soil, it is the organic matter oats bring that really helps to keep soil healthy, alive and strong.
But perhaps best of all, cereal oats die off with the first hard freeze of the season. As winter progresses, the thick mass of foliage dies off in winter but stays in tact enough to provide great protection for your raised bed soil. Affiliate Link: 1 lb Oat Seed | Cover Crop Seed
This is a huge benefit for raised garden growers. Unlike other cover crop choices, there is no need to dig under the crop or continually mow it back to kill off the crop. You can simply clip off, mulch or mow the dead oat foliage on top in the early spring, and plant away.
How To Plant Oats In Your Raised Beds For The Perfect Cover Crop
Planting oats couldn’t be easier in raised beds. As soon as you clear your crops, simply rake the soil even, and sow the seed. The seed is large enough that you can sow by hand for average size raised beds. Once in place, simply tamp lightly with a rake to set it into soil. It does not need to be covered to germinate.
As for how much seed to sow, a good rule of thumb is to scatter twenty five to thirty seeds per square foot, or much like you would when planting grass seed. A typical 4′ x 8′ raised bed area can be planted with a half pound of seed.
To finish, water the seed in and cover with a light coating of straw. The straw will help hold moisture in for faster germination. It also helps keep the seed safe from birds and animals trying to get a quick meal.
Spring Care
Oats are one of the easiest cover crops to manage in the spring because winter’s cold temperatures usually kill them off naturally. By the time planting season arrives, the oats will be brown, dry and beginning to decay.
There is no need to till the oats into the soil. Simply mow or cut off any remaining growth at the soil line, leaving the roots in place. As the roots break down, they add valuable organic matter while creating channels for air, water and new plant roots.
You can then plant your vegetables, herbs or flowers directly through the remaining oat residue. The clippings can even be left on the surface as a light mulch to help retain moisture, suppress weeds and continue feeding the soil as they decompose.And if you want to add even more power in the spring – don’t forget about adding compost and worm castings! See our article: How To Fertilize Raised Beds In Spring – How To Re-Energize Your Soil!
Here is to sowing and growing oats as the perfect cover crop for your raised beds this year, and to growing better than ever next year with healthier and more vibrant soil!
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This Is My Garden is a garden website created by gardeners, for gardeners. Jim and Mary Competti have been writing gardening, DIY and recipe articles and books and speaking for over 15 years from their 46 acre Ohio farm. They publish three articles every week, 52 weeks a year. Sign up today to follow via email, or follow along!