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It’s three days to January. In this area, that means that it’s probably a little late to be planting a cover crop. On the other hand it’s also too early to be planting a spring crop, so! Plant some winter wheat, you say? Why the hell not?

You might already know that I got my wires a little crossed when it comes to no-till gardening. What I’m left with is three inches of compost on top of hard packed clay. I don’t feel like tilling the compost in, so ima go with it. In the meantime, I’ve learned about a couple plants that have a reputation for helping to break up clay soil. They are daikon radish, and winter rye.

Check out this Detroit News article to learn how rye improves clay soil. Basically, rye has a big and powerful root system that will burrow into clay and break it up. If you cut the rye down instead of pulling it up, the roots will compost in the soil and leave behind clay mixed with compost. Pretty awesome if you ask me!

As I mentioned before, I got my wires crossed on the no-till methodology, so I am not planting my rye directly into the clay soil. Instead, I’ve planted into my 3 inches of compost. If it grows, I’ll go ahead an dig some out later in the season to see if it got down to the clay soil. I’ll let you know how it goes!