Collection: Cover Crop Seeds

Cover crops keep soil growing and protected between cash crops, garden seasons, or permanent plantings. Use them to cover bare ground, add biomass, support soil biology, compete with weeds, reduce erosion, or contribute nitrogen through properly inoculated legumes. Peaceful Valley offers individual species and carefully designed mixes for home gardens, farms, orchards, vineyards, pastures, and restoration projects.

Choosing for a home garden? Use the Cover Crop Selector for Home Gardens to answer a few quick questions and get recommendations based on your growing space, season, and garden goals—plus estimated seed and inoculant needs.

Choose seed according to your planting window, climate, available water, soil conditions, termination plan, and primary goal. For the fastest route to an appropriate option, start with the season, crop type, or purpose below.

Shop Cover Crop Seed by Planting Season

• Fall Planted Cover Crops include cool-season grasses, legumes, broadleaf crops, and mixes for protecting and improving soil through fall and winter.
• Warm Weather Cover Crops include fast-growing summer choices for biomass, weed competition, nitrogen fixation, and soil cover.
• Year Round Cover Crops include longer-lived, perennial, and reseeding options for orchards, vineyards, paths, and other persistent plantings.

Shop by Cover Crop Type

• Legume Cover Crop Seed includes clovers, vetches, peas, beans, alfalfa, and other crops that can fix atmospheric nitrogen when paired with compatible rhizobia.
• Non-Legume Cover Crop Seed includes grasses, grains, brassicas, and broadleaf species selected for biomass, rooting, erosion protection, nutrient capture, or weed competition.
• Peaceful Valley Cover Crop Mixes combine complementary species for specific seasons, climates, and soil-building goals.
• Organic Cover Crop Seeds contains products identified as certified organic. Review each product page for certification, coating, and inoculant details.

Shop by Growing Goal

• Build Soil and Organic Matter with mixes selected for biomass, diverse roots, and residue.
• Grow Green Manure for planned termination and return of plant material to the soil.
• Protect Soil from Erosion with seed selected for soil cover and stabilization.
• Establish Pasture and Forage with mixes intended for grazing, hay, or managed forage systems.
• Create a Meadow or Naturalized Planting with grasses, clovers, and flowering species selected for longer-term landscape use.

Raw, Coated, and Inoculated Seed

Check the individual product page before planting. Raw legume seed may require a compatible inoculant for effective nodulation and nitrogen fixation. Nitrocoated seed already includes an appropriate inoculant coating and should not automatically be treated the same as raw seed. An organic coating or an inoculant approved for organic production does not by itself make conventional seed certified organic.

Visit the Seed Inoculants collection to find crop-specific options, and match the inoculant to the legume species listed on its label.

Plan Your Cover Crop

Start with How to Grow Cover Crops for the complete selection, planting, inoculation, care, and termination process. Then use the guide that matches your immediate decision:

• Summer Cover Crops for warm-season selection, planting, water, and care.
• Fall Cover Crops for cool-season selection, establishment, winter survival, and spring planning.
• Nitrogen-Fixing Cover Crops for legume selection, compatible inoculants, nodulation, and realistic nitrogen management.
• Turning Cover Crops into Green Manure for termination methods, residue management, and timing before the next crop.

Use our Cover Crop Solution Chart to compare planting seasons, growth habits, and common uses. After choosing the product-specific seeding rate, use the Cover Crop Application Rate Calculator to estimate how much seed is required. Always follow the selected product page, establish good seed-to-soil contact, provide adequate moisture, and plan termination before the next crop needs the space.

Ready to choose seed? Browse the complete Cover Crop seed catalog, including active and seasonally replenished products that may remain orderable while temporarily out of stock, or explore the curated collections below.