Cool Season - 1st sowing

The garden has only required watering and harvesting during the month of August, good thing, because I was too busy doing other fun things.Bed #9 This is my first direct sowing for the cool season. I am going to grow fava beans for eating, for the first time........I did grow them once as a cover crop, but never to eat. Today I sowed fava beans seeds (unknow variety - I got the seeds in bulk at Common Ground) in the back 1/2 of this bed; carrots (purple dragon and saint valery) and cilantro were sown in the front 1/2.

In the front corner you can see a volunteer oregano plant that I am letting grow. It's helpful to have herbs and flowers mixed throughout your beds in organic gardening, to attrack beneficial insects.

I plan on reserving at least 1/2 of my beds for cover crops. I have cereal rye and emmer wheat, and some fava bean seeds. If I want to grow fava beans for a cover crop, I have to harvest the stalks just as they start to flower, before they grow the pods. At that point, they have brought nitrogen into the soil, but once they start producing the beans, they will use up the nitrogen in the soil, so are useless as a cover crop.....but great to eat!

UPDATED SEPTEMBER 5TH

Fava Beans have germinated