Soil and habitat improvement is always on our minds. Each year, we craft blends of seed to plant that will benefit both the soil by building organic matter and will benefit insects, bees and birds by providing food and shelter. The seeds we planted this year to build our soil include Magnus Peas, Dundale Peas, Common Vetch, Bell Beans, Barley, and Oats. For the bees we planted Yellow Sweet Blossom Clover, Hykon Rose Clover, Persian Clover, Alsike Clover, White Dutch Clover, Alfalfa, Nemfix Mustard, Bracco Mustard, Common Mustard, Canola Mustard, Daikon Radish, Calendula, and Phacelia Tanacetifolia. It may seem like a lot of different types of seed, but each supports a different function or bloom time.
We don’t use herbicides on our vineyard and just now we are cleaning up under the vines with our Clemons Radius XL weed bar. It cuts the plants off just under the soil and leaves them to provide mulch that will help build soil carbon over time.
