===== Preparing the soil =====

To prepare the soil for planting a cover crop for green manure I first attack the weeds.

==== Race of the ages ====

I'm often in a quandary about whether to till (with a diamond hoe) and immediately plant a cover crop or to let weeds sprout, and then hoe and plant.

The dynamic is that sometimes the weeds get a head start on the green manure and limit its growth, even taking over.

==== Latest try ====

{{ :garden:cultivate:tasks:weed:img_1346dw.jpg?360|A cover crop getting a head start on the weeds in the sweet corn patch of 2014}}Lately, I have hoed the weeds, planted, and then used the diamond hoe again to work in the cover crop seeds. This takes a lot of time and effort and I'd like to find a way to leave out a step.

There must be an ideal way to go at this. Though sometimes it seems that whichever way I try, the weeds get a foothold before the cover crop does. It may depend on how well I have suppressed the weeds in the previous months. In the sweet corn patch at the farm, which I kept in a dust mulch all season, the cover crop appears to be dominant. Maybe that's a good model, but I can't always keep the weeds that much under control.

More later....