Just the other day, I discovered a half-empty bottle of Lucozade placed in the euphorbia trough by one of the scaffolders. An architect friend commented, “Are you sure that’s Lucozade?” which made me see it differently.
All this is to say, the garden is a bit of a mess. Sometimes neglect has its perks; coming back from a trip, I spotted a sunflower growing in the back corner.
Now, however, some urgent tidying is underway. As I’m expecting a baby, I’ve enlisted a local gardener to tackle troublesome weeds like a prickly weed and young tree shoots from the neighbour’s tree, but keeping desirable plants. Then, in the newly cleared patches, I’ll be sowing green manure.
Cover crops act like heroes when it comes to boosting soil quality.
My gardening friend Claire has written about green manure, as they play a key role in crop rotation for vegetable plots. However, the only things I’m picking from my garden right now are a few foraged apples and some hardy herbs.
My ambitions for the garden are simple and steady – and enhancing soil health is top of the list. For those wondering, the scaffold is for roof repairs, and the garden boundaries are yet to be fixed, but the neighbours agree with the plan.
Green manure work wonders for soil health. Bare soil invites weeds, which is why weeds appear. Yet by sowing fast-growing plants, you can suppress weeds, bring in bees, shelter beneficial insects, and enrich the soil with nutrients.
Cover crops aren’t always showy – though some, like certain lupin varieties and bird’s foot trefoil, have pretty flowers – but their purpose is to grow vigorously rather than look decorative. Once established, you can dig them into the soil, cut them for compost, or let them decompose for earthworms to incorporate. The real magic happens underground.
Now is the ideal time for sowing these cold-season plants. My selection includes forage rye, which breaks up heavy earth, Italian ryegrass, a weed-suppressor, and field beans.
There’s satisfaction in planting seeds knowing it’s temporary – at least above ground.
