Buckwheat says "Ohh Tay!"

Different kind of buckwheat... Not the guy from Little Rascals. This kind of buckwheat is what's growing in the plot that will become the garden next year. It's part of the composting process - or generation of "green manure".
Very early in the season I plowed under this section of field at the edge of our yard - planning full well to have the garden in there this next year as part of crop rotation. It's not that I really "want" to move things around - but the fewer chemicals you use in an attempt to raise produce organically - the more you need to respond naturally - and crop rotations is one of the easiest ways to remove the pests from the plantings (so to speak). But - to do that - you need to have other areas with prepared soil - relativity weed free - and full of nutrients.
That's where green manure comes in. And this planting of buckwheat and harry vetch do just that. The buckwheat is the tall leafy plant with the small white flowers. It's brad leaves shade out most other plants - except under them grows a planting of harry vetch. Vetch is a legume - so it fixes nitrogen... it's also winter hardy.
So - it works like this... the buckwheat makes lots of compost and keeps other things from growing up. When the buckwheat dies this fall (it's orange now - just a week after this photo) it provides wind cover for the vetch over the winter and forage for birds. Then the vetch will grow come spring. And then when it's a few weeks before planting next May - The whole lot gets plowed under and then disked - providing the soil with a fair amount of organic matter from the plants - and some natural nitrogen from the harry vetch.
Highly sustainable - good conservation practices.