I thought I'd update this old thread with what I decided to do. Last fall I covered the entire garden in mulched up leaves (about 6 inches deep). Then in the spring I tried to till that in but it was too much. I raked enough off to one side to plant lettuce and spinach early but we had a really bizarre spring with a week in the 90s in April so that didn't do much good. Then I moved enough of the leaves into the center in order to plant 6 30 foot rows of bush beans on one end and 8 30 foot rows of sweetcorn on the other. Once the beans were tall enough I used most of the leaves from the center pile to mulch the beans. Both beans and corn are looking great this year.
Once the leaves were off the center section I sowed Buckwheat 2 1/2 weeks ago. When it starts to flower I will cut it down using a weed eater. I plan to cut it at 1 foot then 2 foot and finally at the soil level. At that point if I think I have time to get another crop of buckwheat started such that it won't go to seed before frost I will till under the buckwheat I just cut down. If I think it's too late I will let the cut plants lay and till them under in the spring.
I plan to cut the bean plants off at the soil level, remove the dried plants, and till under the roots. I will try to plant a crop of buckwheat over that if it has time before frost.
I think the corn will come out too late to start a crop of buckwheat at that end of the garden so I will wait until spring to decide what to do with that section.
Thoughts?
