Cover cropping
Most of my vegetables are growing in 4×10 foot raised beds. I have been reading about the benefits of cover cropping after harvest and over winter and would like to know if this can be done in raised beds. If so, please explain how to do it and the best plants for my area which is the southwest.
Christi Newhall
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Cover cropping not only reduces the weed population in your garden or raised beds but it also adds green manure which can be tilled under or dug in to enrich the soil. It also holds snow in the area. A whole lot of old-time farmers call snow “white manure” as the minerals it contains enrich the soil. A real easy cover crop is oats. You can plant them now in Santa Fe and they’ll still be several inches tall when the snows/freeze hits. Oats will take a few frosts but will kill out over winter. In the spring, simply dig them into your beds and they will have choked out a lot of tiny germinating weeds from the fall but will add tilth and green manure to your beds.
Making soap
Thank you for giving us your basic goat milk and honey soap recipe in the current issue. There is one concern I’ve had that has kept me from making my own goat milk soap. I know you have a conure in your house too and I am worried about toxic fumes around my pet bird (sun conure.) If I mix the lye and water outdoors and wait for it to come to the proper temperature will there be any problem with toxic fumes upon bringing it back indoors to add to the other ingredients? Or would I have to complete the entire process outdoors? Thank you for your wonderful advice.
Mary Hartsock
Lancaster, Kentucky
While I wouldn’t make soap in the same room with our birds, there isn’t much of a problem if the birds are in another room, far from the soap-making. Put the bird in a bedroom and close the door or locate its cage in a room far from the kitchen where most of us make soap. I’ve never had a problem using these simple precautions. I’d go ahead and make your soap inside. It’s a lot easier! — Jackie
