Planting your Cowpeas and Buckwheat

Why cowpeas and buckwheat? Because, if you got a chance to hang out with us at the Mississippi Street Fair, you probably have a seed packet with a fall cover crop mix of cowpeas and buckwheat.

Why plant cover crops? It makes your veggie garden look better in the fall and winter, you extend your planting season, you improve your soil, and you get to eat cowpeas (you probably have eaten them as “Black Eyed Peas”). You theoretically could harvest enough buckwheat to make one pancake as well!

Convinced? Take your free seed packet (or head over to Buffalo Gardens on Alberta to buy your own) and head out to your garden sometime before early October. Find an empty spot and mix the seed packet into the soil to depth of about an inch. Keep the soil moist till the seedlings get about Smurf sized (3 apples tall). Both buckwheat and cowpeas are relatively drought tolerant once they are about knee high to Ryan Seacrest (6 apples tall), so you wont need to give them nearly as much water as your other veggies.