The way to a healthy garden is to feed the soil and build the ecosystem. Growing cover crops and compost crops in your garden will help you do that and set you on the path to sustainability. Cindy Conner, former market gardener and now sustainable agriculture college instructor, demonstrates how to manage these crops, using only hand tools. Watch through the seasons as crops come to maturity and are either cut as mulch in the beds they were grown in, or cut as food for the compost pile. Using these methods, you also reap the benefits of the biomass of the huge amount of roots left in the bed when the mulch and compost crops are grown there. Growing them to maturity allows seed to be saved for next year, while attracting beneficial insects that help with pest control. Timing and crop choices are of the ultimate importance for successful results. Whether you are gardening on a small or large scale, this video will give you information and ideas to help you develop your own sustainable garden.

Run time is 66 minutes.