Winter Oats: A Cover Crop to Improve Your Home Garden Soil

Cover crop growing tips

Why Winter Oats Will Improve Your Home Garden

Winter Oats are a popular, affordable, and beneficial cover crop for your home vegetable garden.  

winter oats growing in the garden

Winter Oats are a cool season annual grass that matures quickly in about 60 days and provides 5 important benefits:


Erosion Control - A cover crop of winter oats will hold onto the soil and keep it from washing away in the rain and snow.


Weed Suppression - When the oats sprout and grow, they will smother weeds and keep them from growing.


Softer Soil - The fibrous roots will aerate and break up compacted soil. This root action will improve the soil quality, making it easier to work with in spring planting.


Increase Organic Matter - When the oats are mowed in the spring, they will provide organic matter and help the growth of microorganisms.


Regulate Vital Nutrients - Oats are excellent nutrient scavengers and will take up the extra nitrogen in the soil.

How to Plant Winter Oats in Your Garden

To get the best results, plant winter oats in late summer or early fall, around 40 to 60 days before your first average killing frost. Once you’ve cleared and prepared your garden beds, broadcast your oat seeds into the soil. Incorporate them into the soil, about 1/2" to 1" deep, and keep them watered to help the oats to establish quickly.


Oats and Peas Grow Better Together

Sometimes oats are grown as a nurse crop for a legume, like Austrian Winter Peas or a Crimson Clover. These crops work very well together in companion plantings. The oats provide erosion control and provide a cover from frost damage so that the legumes can grow. The legumes are slower to establish, so this protection is valuable. In turn, the legumes fix nitrogen from the air into the soil.


How to Integrate Winterkilled Oats in Your Garden

Oats will die off slowly after a series of hard freezes and usually winterkill in Zone 7 and colder. The remaining plant residue will continue to insulate the soil, prevent erosion, and suppress weeds until spring. If you live in a warmer zone, mowing soon after blooming will easily kill the oats.

Preparing Your Garden for Spring

When it’s time to plant new crops in the beds that have been covered with winter oats, the dead plant matter is a rich mulch. Oats are perfect for no-till gardening. The residue will quickly break down as the season warms. If you prefer, you can also break up the dead plants and incorporate them directly through hoeing or tilling. Either way, the decomposing oats will add valuable nutrients and organic matter to the soil of your garden bed.

If you’ve made it to this point, congratulations! By planting winter oats, you will not only protect your garden beds from erosion and weed invasion, but you’ll actively be building better soil quality. This is an easy investment - just a little time and effort - that pays big dividends. 



Written by Teresa Chandler


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