I have a small home garden my backyard about 20' by 4'. I have the standard home garden vegetables planted, tomatoes, peppers, basil, celery, etc. I was thinking about planting some red clover in between all the plants to create a nice bed that will choke out weeds so I don't have to weed all the time, put some nitrogen back in soil, and hold in moisture during those long hot dry spells here in New Jersey. The plants are all at least a foot tall now. Would you recommend this? Or would the clover and the vegetables start competing and therefor take away from my harvest? I figured they are all big enough now that the clover will stay well below them. But I don't know if underground there will be a battle going on with the root systems. I already plan on planting the clover in the fall when everything is done growing and then till it in in the spring. Thanks!
Try buckwheat as an alternate crop. it doesn't fix nitrogen, but it doesn't get invasive. Crimson clover is a non invasive annual legume too.
The trick with a cover crop is that you are tilling it into the soil before it flowers to return the nitrogen it pulls from the air into the soil. Planting it between garden plants might not be the best. If you do it, you'll at least want to mow it regularly to keep it from flowering, setting seed, and coming up EVERYWHERE in your garden. Usually cover crops are sown, grown, and tilled under either in the off season (fall/winter/early spring) or for a season in a field that is being rested (growing no crops that you're going to harvest).
