Buckwheat > Green Manure

When we were up at the family farm, we discussed with the hubs dad, (the farmer) our frustrations with how badly our garden crops grew this summer.  We had a really hard time with plants taking off, mostly because the soil was crap!  The hub's dad recommended that we add some amendments to the soil, "green manure" he said.  He gave us a huge bag of buckwheat seeds to take home with us.  Growing cover crops to add some nutrients to the ground is an easy way to add plant "food" to the soil. We spread seeds all over the raised beds we built. Before the buckwheat goes to seed, we will chop down the buckwheat and till it into the ground.  That's it!  So easy!  Buckwheat grows really fast, and decomposes pretty fast too!  He also recommended that we should get some hairy vetch seeds and also comfrey.  He had hairy vetch, comfrey, and buckwheat cover crops growing all over his farm, where ever he pulled the crops, in went cover crop seeds.  This is so great, so much faster and easier than waiting for compost to be ready from our compost bin!