Japanese Radish Cover Crop - Will it Affect Existing Flowers / Shrubs / Bulbs ?


Question: if I plant Japanese Radish seeds in late August (Zone 6) as a 'cover crop' as a way to try to ammend/soften/nourish/fix the existing garden soil, will the radishes negatively affect/ruin my existing flower garden?Soil Background: The soil is dry and compacted (and clay-y at the bottom); I've added compost, I've added gypsum, all with no luck. A few years back when my husband and I bought the house, he roto-tilled the soil, which I think brought up a LOT of clay. I read that Japanese Radish can be planted in late Summer, allowed to grow, then can die/rot and that this process will magically repair the soil's health come Springtime.Current Garden: I have a 'three-season' flower bed consisting of perennial flowers such as Bleeding Hearts, Helenium, Black Lace Elderberry, some tulips, and some others (the 'others' did not survive since planted last Fall as seedlings/juveniles - I suspect that they couldn't breathe in that awful soil).I suppose I'm looking to find out if the radishes will ruin what's managed to survive thus far. And if anyone has any other ideas aside from dumping bags and bags of more compost on top in the Fall.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Our garden is absolutely full of weeds and clover and they're all around the plants. How do we fix this? A lot of the plants are too close together to use a machine for it. We don't want to lose our garden

Image
For context it has been storming nearly every single day here and the clover and weeds are thriving and we haven't been able to get to them. My dad just died so it's just me (21F) and my grandma. I have very severe asthma and the smoke in the air makes it difficult for me to work outside and my grandma is nearly 70. What do we do?
Read more

Need help planning my garden

Image
Hey all, I made a post a few days ago but due to language issues, I’m doing a new, proper one now.I need some help planning the restoration of old family property. Its a wild meadow now, it was once used for hay production, then for some 20 years horses lived there and then it was just unused and grew wild over the last 10 years.Now I want to restore a part of it as a garden. I have like 1000 ideas, but no real plan where to start. Ill try to give you as much information as I can, plus some photos of the property and what I’ve already done last year.The issues are, there is no running fresh water, no electricity, it is on the other side of the town (15min car, 40min Bike ride) and I have very limited money, so I’m trying to to everything with as little money possible.https://ift.tt/mEyJAMu at a zone comparable to 6a. The entire area is around 50x250m, sitting at the north side of an old forest, down at the river. The ground is at a slope for a bit over half the distance, so most of th
Read more

Can you help me out?

Image
Hello everyone,I hope this post is allowed, otherwise feel free to delete it! I am a Greek student in Sweden studying marketing and I am doing research related to community gardens, more specifically how community gardens act as spaces for citizens to express resistance to urbanization and food culture. As part of the research project I need to interview people who are active members in the community gardens and could give me more information related to community gardens, the overall community and in general your experiences when it comes to community gardens, why you do it, etc. Please send me a message or leave a comment if you are interested in helping me by sharing your experience with me! Thank you in advance!
Read more