Does your garden soil need a boost? Plant green manure in your garden and you’ll enrich your soil.
Just the other day, I discovered a half-empty bottle of an energy drink left behind in the euphorbia trough by one of the scaffolders. A visiting architect joked, “Are you sure that’s Lucozade?” giving me a new perspective.
In short, the garden is a bit of a mess. But there’s a lot to be said for negligence; coming back from a trip, I spotted a sunflower sprouting in the back corner.
Now, however, some necessary firefighting is underway. Being six months pregnant, I’ve enlisted a professional gardener to remove invasive plants like a prickly weed and young tree shoots from the neighbour’s tree, while leaving the good stuff. Next, in the newly cleared patches, I’ll be sowing cover crops.
Cover crops act like heroes when it comes to boosting soil quality.
My gardening friend Claire has previously discussed cover crops, as they are essential in seasonal planting for edible gardens. But, the only things I’m harvesting from my garden right now are a few foraged apples and some woody herbs.
My ambitions for the garden are modest and consistent – and enhancing soil health is top of the list. For those wondering, the scaffold is for roof repairs, and the fences are still wobbly, but the neighbours agree with replacing them.
Cover crops work wonders for soil health. Bare soil invites weeds, which is why weeds appear. Yet by sowing vigorous crops, you can suppress weeds, bring in bees, host pest-eating creatures, and enrich the soil with nutrients.
Cover crops may not look exciting – though some, like lupins ‘Blue Sonet’ and a flowering legume, have lovely blooms – but their role is to thrive rather than be admired. After they’ve grown, you can turn them under, chop them for mulch, or let them decompose for earthworms to pull down. The real magic happens underground.
Now is the ideal time for sowing these cold-season plants. My selection includes rye grass, which breaks up heavy earth, a nitrogen-lifter, vetch, and field beans.
It feels rewarding in sowing something that won’t stay forever – at least above ground.
