Getting started with cover crops

Well I'm not sure how I managed to post this without any content but here goes try #2

I'm hoping to do some cover crop work in a garden plot I've not had much success with. I live in southern Nevada zone 9ba with truly awful soil and very little rain. In the past I've tilled in a good quantity of manure in but it's only made marginal progress.

The plot is probably 30 x 30, very sandy at one side and rocky clay at the other. It is irritated with drip irrigation.

I intend on getting sweet potatoes in on the clay side this summer. On the more sandy part, I am not entirely sure what is going to be the best approach. I have seeds for sudan grass, cowpeas, buckwheat, and mung beans. My thought was to throw a mix of them all down and see what happens. I'd prefer to go in with a little strategy so I don't waste seed but I don't know what a good strategy would be. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Ooh very exciting! I'm in Southern Arizona in a 9a so probably very similar to your climate (just with more summer monsoon rain). Very sandy soil here, the cover crops have been HUGE for improving it, I can't believe how much my soil has transformed after 3 years of chopping + dropping the covers.

I started with a mix that had a ton of different cover crops in it, and I would broadcast it every season and observe what worked and what grew best at what times of year.

That really helped me to narrow it down and figure out which ones I like to grow.

I put a full list of the ones that worked each season for me in Tucson here:
https://learndirt.com/learn/best-cover-crops-for-tucson/

Sudangrass, cowpea, buckwheat all grew for me in the shoulder seasons or summer, but the buckwheat wasn't nearly as prolific as the others.

Now that I know which ones work here I buy them in 1lb or 5lb bags to save money and just broadcast them and hand-water daily until they sprout and root and then let the irrigation do the work after that