I talked in some length in a previous post (see here) about the value and relative ease of adding legumes to an orchard groundcover. That post included some photos of some areas I had seeded legumes in previous years in areas that are (or were about to be) planted as orchards. I did extensive frost seeding of legume species in the winter of 2018 and 2019. The winter of 2019, and spring of 2020, were moist and cool in this area and conditions were excellent for germination of many of the legume species I planted, especially the various white clovers. I wanted to follow up that post with some pictures of how a really low-input, low-cost frost seeding can really pay off when environmental conditions are really favorable for the the planting.
Above: This picture was from earlier this spring and the white clover came on very early, it came on very dense, and with continued heavy rainfall it just kept on growing. The Ladino clover made especially tall, dense growth in favorable areas this year.
Below (2 pictures): These are from mid-late May 2020. The first picture is of one of the typical small bare root pecan trees I planted the previous year. It has made fine growth with all this rain and many of them went from little 12" tall sticks into 3 foot tall trees this season. I generally like a fairly heavy straw mulch a couple of feet in diameter around the trees, then around that mulch I like to keep the legumes mowed consistently quite short.
