Different Strokes for Different Folks

Soil-improving crops will produce a favorable effect when planted in many different situations. Sometimes soil improvement and/or protection is the objective of a planting. Sometimes improving the soil isn’t the primary goal, but it helps to better fulfill the principle purpose as healthy plants in healthy soil will always be more effective at their job. Many soil-improving crops — such as clovers, vetches, grasses, buckwheat, selfheal, sunflowers, rudbeckias and salvias — can be used in most or all of the plantings below.

BUFFER STRIP: A buffer strip is land maintained in permanent vegetation in order to help achieve and maintain good air, soil, and/or water quality. It may slow surface runoff, control wind erosion, stabilize a stream bank, provide a space of protection from pesticide drift or perform some other environmental service.

FILTER STRIP: A filter strip might be thought of as a particular kind of buffer strip; they are in place to reduce the concentrations of (leaching) nitrogen and phosphorus, sediment, and pesticides from agricultural land into surface water specifically.

COVER CROP: A cover crop is grown in between cash crops (in the temporal sense) when a cash crop wouldn’t normally be growing. In many places, this means growing in winter and with crops that are winter annuals or perennials (perhaps short-lived ones). Though cover crops and green manures (directly below) offer essentially identical benefits, erosion prevention is often considered of particular importance with cover cropping as it protects soil that might otherwise be left bare during an unproductive season.

GREEN MANURE: Green manures are grown in place of a cash crop, i.e., grown during the main growing season. Because production time is being “sacrificed” with green manures, cover cropping is the more prevalent of the two practices. However, it can be possible to grow a green manure and a cash crop in one season if you were to select a very short-season cash crop (leaf lettuce or other cutting greens, radishes, etc.) or a very short-season green manure, such as buckwheat.

LIVING MULCH: In place during the main growing season — like a green manure — but not taking the place of a cash crop, a living mulch grows underneath the canopy of a cash crop where it has been interplanted or undersown (sounds like a cover crop that is grown in between cash crops spatially instead of temporally). As well as the soil-improving benefits it yields, it lives up to its name and provides the additional benefits of mulching, including soil temperature regulation and moisture retention due to a protected soil surface.

INSECTARY STRIP: Insectary strips can be permanent, incorporating trees and shrubs and involving rigorous maintenance. The temporary or annual insectary strip is more likely to include plants common to these plantings and will also create improved soil conditions for crop planting, as they are located on land that may be put into production. But the main function of insectary strips is to support beneficial insects with food sources and housing/ nesting materials; these are possible benefits of the other planting practices, depending on the plant varieties and maintenance methods used.

BEETLE BANK OR BEETLE BERM: A beetle bank is, again, a planting primarily for the support of beneficial insects, but particularly predaceous ground beetles. It fosters them as part of an integrated pest management system, intended to reduce reliance on insecticides. A beetle bank is a raised bed or berm located within or around cash crop areas and planted with an emphasis on native grasses and flowers.