Thanks to all who responded to my urgent call for advice about planting
alfalfa vs. Red clover. IN addition to the short time frame, the other
hassle I experienced was the fact that there was no seed within a day's
travel of here. If you have ever flown into a New York area airport,
you already know why. All the farm supply places have either shut down
or become garden centers. I think we literally got the last 50 pounds
of red clover in the state after spending about a day on the phone
trying to locate it.
Basically, I had expected to plant something completely different later
in the summer, since the people helping us (this is a student organic
garden club, with no budget and no equipment, which is trying to improve
the soil on the future site for a 2 acre garden which has to relocate)
were busy until then. Except that then they said, "get us the seed
ASAP; we'll plant it on Friday," so I couldn't exactly wait for the 2
week shipping time from our usual source.
Last summer we planted cowpeas and buckwheat, which was pretty dismal
because we then had 9 consecutive weeks with NO RAIN. In complete
defiance of all expectations, the "red ripper" cowpeas actually grew
anyway! Not too well, but they grew. The buckwheat never even sprouted.
Then in the fall we put in a mix of oats and several legumes which grew
well until winter. Then the purple vetch came back with a bang this
spring and got quite thick.
Now the red clover is in and I hope it will do well. We want it to grow
this year and through next summer, at which point we will begin to
relocate our current garden to the new site.
Thanks again!
Loren Muldowney
loscott@envsci.rutgers.edu
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