Vegetable production is often deleterious to the soil because seed bed preparation, frequent cultivation, and destruction of crop residue at season end reduce soil organic matter and increase soil erosion. A cover crop planted before the vegetable crop, then partially or totally killed just before planting the vegetable, helps maintain the soil, but often makes planting of the vegetable crop difficult. Living mulches intercropped with vegetables could help prevent soil erosion and degradation, but if not managed properly could compete with the vegetables, causing reductions in yield and quality. My objective was to determine the effect of intercropped barley and a legume (red clover, white clover, or hairy vetch) on transplanted cabbage. Barley was seeded at the same time as the cabbage and killed when about 15 cm tall. The legumes were planted 4 d or 23 d after cabbage was transplanted and were allowed to grow, unchecked, for the entire season. The early-planted hairy vetch and red clover grew too vigorously and severely reduced cabbage yield, number of heads, and head size. The late-planted white clover had trouble getting established. Hairy vetch and red clover planted late or white clover planted early established a good ground cover by the end of the season and did not reduce cabbage yield. Hairy vetch grew faster, taller, covered the ground better, and produced more dry matter than red clover which was better than white clover. None of the living mulch treatments increased total end-of-season dry matter. An increase in living mulch dry matter was accompanied by a corresponding decrease in cabbage end-of-season dry matter. Soil tests the following spring showed nitrate-N levels were higher than the check following living mulch treatments of hairy vetch or red clover but not white clover.