Image by Alexandre Dulaunoy
If you’ve got a patch of bare earth in your garden this autumn, you should be thinking about tucking it in all cosy and snug under a blanket of green manure. Protest against the idea all you like: you’ll soon run out of excuses.
Green manures do lots of wonderful things. The first is that they protect bare soil from erosion. Winter rains and frosts and melting snow aren’t great for your soil structure, and often wash away vital nutrients. A carpet of green manure holds the soil in place, and often does wonders for compacted soil, freeing it up with deep roots.
When you want to start growing crops on the bed again, digging the green manure back into the soil adds even more vital nutrients. Different green manures offer different things, but there are a number of leguminous (pea relatives) manures which fix nitrogen from the air in their roots, ready to be returned to the soil.
Green manures also keep the weeds back by covering the soil, and provide shelter and food for wildlife. Many of the long-term green manures such as phacelia are extraordinarily pretty, and attract clouds of bees and beneficial insects such as hoverflies.
So there’s no reason at all to avoid sowing an overwintering green manure this autumn. Ideal winter-hardy manures include Italian ryegrass, Hungarian grazing rye, afalfa, field beans and tares. Or you can sow a quick-growing mustard to dig in within a month of germination.
What green manures do you use?
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Estelle
Buckwheat!
isabel
Salut Estelle, merci pour votre reponse. Vouz avez un blog superb – je ne l’ai pas lu avant d’aujourd’hui.
janet
I have sown mustard seed where my potatoes were as it is supposed to help deter wire worm as well as all the other benefits associated with green manure. Its the first time i have tried it so looking forward to seeing the results!
isabel
Hi Janet – that’s really interesting about the wrireworm – you must let me know what happens!
Estelle
Merci Isabel ! Je lis votre blog depuis quelques mois et j’y apprends beaucoup, beaucoup de choses, merci !
isabel
merci – je suis heureuse que F&F etait utile!
nic @ nipitinthebud
I used Hungarian grazing rye last year to keep the weeds at bay over winter. It did just that and survived all the snow as well! (http://nipitinthebud.wordpress.com/2009/10/24/feeding-the-soil-with-green-manure/)
I can’t say I’ve noticed a difference to the plants then grown in that area of the garden in the summer but I think that’s more to do with the hot dry spell stunting growth than anything else. I was going to try vetch this year because it flowers so beautifully but I then read you have to dig it in before that happens so I’l be sowing Red Clover instead so I can have the best of both worlds: fewer weeds, improved soil and a splash of colour in the Spring.
isabel
Hi Nic, I love vetch too – and I think the same is true of red clover, although there’s always a case for bending the rules a bit when it comes to pretty green manures! Let me know how it goes.
Isabel