Want to give your soil some TLC? Sow cover crops in your garden and you’ll improve your yields.
Just the other day, I discovered a partially finished bottle of an energy drink placed in the euphorbia trough by one of the scaffolders. An architect friend joked, “Are you sure that’s Lucozade?” which made me see it differently.
In short, the garden is in disarray. Sometimes neglect has its perks; coming back from a trip, I spotted a sunflower growing in the back corner.
This week, though, some urgent tidying is underway. As I’m expecting a baby, 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. Then, in the newly cleared patches, I’ll be sowing cover crops.
Green manure are superheroes when it comes to improving soil health.
My gardening friend Claire has previously discussed cover crops, as they play a key role in crop rotation for edible gardens. But, the only things I’m picking from my garden right now are a few foraged apples and some woody herbs.
My garden goals are simple and steady – and enhancing soil health is my main priority. To update concerned readers, the scaffolding is for roof repairs, and the garden boundaries are still wobbly, but the neighbours agree with replacing them.
Cover crops are like superheroes for soil health. Bare soil invites weeds, which is why weeds appear. But by sowing vigorous crops, you can control weeds, bring in bees, host pest-eating creatures, and enrich the soil with nutrients.
Cover crops aren’t always showy – though some, like certain lupin varieties and a flowering legume, have pretty flowers – but their purpose is to thrive rather than be admired. After they’ve grown, you can dig them into the soil, chop them for mulch, or let them decompose for worms to incorporate. Their work happens below the surface.
Now is the ideal time for sowing these cold-season plants. My selection includes forage rye, great for clay soil, a nitrogen-lifter, vetch, and field beans.
There’s satisfaction in sowing something knowing it’s temporary – on the surface, anyway.
