Hi @kdurivage I really love linseed (also known as flax) as a cover crop, it works well with almost everything, it’s got an upright growth habit so it doesn’t ‘shade out’ other crops too much, and also tolerates being strimmed or cut if you feel the need to knock back your cover crop mid season. It also doubles up as an edible crop as you can harvest the seed to eat (and the plants are also used in making fibre if you’re feeling adventurous!). I love a combination of Linseed, Nigella, and Linaria macroccana - they all look beautiful together and the nigella and linseed can also double up as a yielding crop if you need them to, and they are all from different plant families so in combination with the market crop that gives a good diverse mix of roots and their varying endophytic relationships. In the polytunnels we use lower growing species with our tomatoes and cucumbers - plants such as Tagetes, Calendula, Nigella, Limnanthes and Ageratum we find work well. In the field, big successes have been undersowing brassicas with a really diverse mix - trefoil, clover, buckwheat, linseed, sunflowers, poppy, cornflower, corncockle, calendula, black oats, and many more.
Yay! I’m delighted to hear that it’s full of flavor. I love pretty things, but prettiness isn’t enough to incentivize me to do anything extra to get a meal. (Wry grin.) If there’s a mix of different tasty flavors, though, that would do it! And if it’s pretty on top of it, that would be awesome.
I get what you mean
Additionaly, I’m basically foraging in my own garden, not just beds but all over the place, and it feels so good to pick up a bit of everything, come to the house, mix it up and enjoy those lovely flavours.
And every time it’s somewhat different mix of colours and flavours and textures, depending what’s growing and what’s flowering at the moment.
That’s awesome. Harvesting is the most fun part of gardening, in my opinion, and having lots of options to pick whatever I want of over a long time sounds great.
In my system weeds fill the role of cover cropping And I love to eat them. Wherever I leave them they grow! No need to purchase seeds when I have lush carpets of chickweed and lambs quarters for free volunteering everywhere! I like chickweed very much in my salads and it also makes a decent pesto. I like my lambs quarters blanched. Alot of people compare them with spinach but I think their young shoots taste more like Asparagus.
Ooh! Yes, edible weeds are fantastic! I’d love it if purslane would grow in my yard (and outcompete my inedible grass), instead of my garden beds. It seems to want more water than my ecosystem naturally provides, but it thrives in places that get abundant water (like, say, lawns other than mine 
).
I’m excited to try out lambsquarters. Julia sent me some seeds. (Thank you! 
) I’m undecided about whether I should grow a few plants in a pot indoors first, just to make sure I like the taste, or whether I should just direct sow a bunch into my yard and hope they’ll grow and be tasty. I should probably try them out indoors first, but the limited space under my grow light is mostly full of yacon and oca sprouts that seem very happy right now. (Thank you for those, too, Julia! )
I’ve noticed that my grass is always green and lush in the winter (even though it’s buried in snow two-thirds of the time), and it’s always dry and brown in the summer, so I’d really like to get some tasty edible weeds using all that winter water instead. Clearly our native grasses can do it!
I have a similar experience; purslane grows vigorously in my garden beds; it seems to appreciate the extra water. But I found that carrots, which usually seem to have trouble germinating here, seemed to do better when coming up through a thick carpet of purslane. I’m not sure if that was a one-off occurrence or not, but I’ll see what happens this year. We let it grow under all the larger plants and harvest loads of it, and we’re careful to let it set seeds. (By this point, the soil seed bank is so huge that the care is probably not needed!)
I appreciate that it comes up later than some other weeds, so my initial weeding is mostly done and the crops established before it really gets going.
Now, that’s interesting! Maybe the plants have some good beneficial effects to each other. Or maybe carrots just appreciate being shaded out by an overstory crop while they’re germinating, which keeps the soil moister! I’ve found carrots do great under my huge bush zucchinis, and most other crops don’t.
I’m into wild medicinal edibles aka “weeds” as part of my cover crop plan too. I saw dandelion greens for two dollars a bunch at the store the other day. Awesome! I planted the ones in the picture (Blew the seed head off in the garden) Roasted Dandelion Root is the absolute best. Waiting a few more weeks to let the roots grow and the bees enjoy. I have also found Wheat and Barley do a great job for me overwintering and then forming a head by late May. It’ll allow me to harvest and then plant another crop
Does Garlic count? I totally have it and onions everywhere too. I put it out in the late fall here and it comes up and stays with a little green growing all Winter. Only thing that will keep cats from digging in the garden.
Couple other things too. Space challenged so I keep it pretty full. I really enjoyed this post and hearing what others are implementing
What does roasted dandelion root taste like? I know it’s edible, but I’ve been nervous to try it after finding that the leaves and flowers taste insanely bitter to me.
I really want to eat dandelion leaves and flowers, since they’re healthy food and available everywhere, but so far, I haven’t found a way to eat them that I can bear.
So good friend! Like a deep coffee mixed with Spring. So rich. I agree that the greens are bitter. I don’t adore them either. The roasted roots are so where it’s at for me. I dont remember the specific compound that causes it but when you roast them it releases and smells like chocolate cake. I harvested some yesterday. It was so windy I stopped cause wow they definitely hold down the fort! 220 in the oven to dry for an hour or so then 350 till they start to smoke. Health wise, they really really help me. I could go on and on about dandelions. I think it’s the magnesium I really respond to. Those deep roots snatch it up! I better stop. I could go on and on 
I would love to hear what they do for you nutritionally. I think the reason I need red meat in my diet is because I don’t absorb iron well from any other source, but magnesium is another possibility.
You are probably most definitely totally on to something there! I believe that’s where my problem and alot of others lie as well. Lack of minerals and nutrients in our food supply. Magnesium is really important in the process of making protein in our bodies for our brain, muscles, nervous system to function on. Vital in the process of digestion and absorption. Not even skimming the tip of the role of magnesium…and theres so much more in just
that one plant! Vitamin A,K, E, B vitamins, potassium, inulin, calcium, antioxidants, etc.
Crazy what a perfect system that we havent even begun to understand! Without help from the natural world I am definitely more tired, kind of stuck , just not quite 100 percent myself. Like I’m dragging me around! Being able to help myself was beyond empowering and I’m so grateful to nature. I utilize other remedies. Turkey tail, Milk Thistle, etc. I feel better now than I have in my whole life. I owe it to the magical,miraculous, absolutely freely given to us, literally growing everywhere, medicinal plant world!
I’m going to cheat a little and use an excerpt from this crazy phenomenal field guide. It gives the historical uses of medicinal plants as well as current studies. Great for id. They explain better than I could how awesome it is for digestion.
Sidenote - The information in this course in regards to nutrient density and how it varies between different vegetable varieties really blew my mind!
