I recently found 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?” which made me see it differently.
In short, the garden is in disarray. But there’s a lot to be said for negligence; 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 hired a professional gardener to tackle 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 green manure.
Green manure are superheroes when it comes to boosting soil quality.
A fellow garden writer has written about green manure, 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 hardy herbs.
My garden goals are simple and steady – and enhancing soil health is top of the list. For those wondering, the scaffolding is for roof repairs, and the garden boundaries are yet to be fixed, but the neighbours agree with replacing them.
Cover crops work wonders for your garden’s foundation. Bare soil invites weeds, which is why weeds appear. But 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. After they’ve grown, you can turn them under, cut them for compost, or let them decompose for worms to pull down. Their work happens underground.
Now is the ideal time for sowing these overwintering crops. I’ve chosen rye grass, great for clay soil, a nitrogen-lifter, a weed-suppressor, and field beans.
There’s satisfaction in sowing something knowing it’s temporary – on the surface, anyway.
