Soil in need of some love? Plant cover crops in your garden and you’ll enrich your soil.
I recently found a half-empty bottle of Lucozade 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.
All this is to say, the garden is in disarray. But there’s a lot to be said for negligence; coming back from a trip, I spotted a sunflower sprouting in the back corner.
This week, though, some necessary firefighting is underway. As I’m expecting a baby, I’ve hired a local gardener to remove invasive plants like green alkanet and robinia saplings from the neighbour’s tree, but keeping desirable plants. Next, in the newly cleared patches, I’ll be sowing cover crops.
Cover crops act like heroes when it comes to improving soil health.
My gardening friend Claire has written about green manure, as they are essential in crop rotation for edible gardens. However, the only things I’m picking from my garden right now are a few foraged apples and some hardy herbs.
My garden goals are modest and consistent – and improving the soil is my main priority. For those wondering, the scaffold is for roof repairs, and the garden boundaries are yet to be fixed, but the neighbours are on board with replacing them.
Cover crops are like superheroes for soil health. Soil likes to be covered, which is why unwanted plants pop up. Yet by sowing vigorous crops, you can suppress weeds, bring in bees, host pest-eating creatures, and fix nitrogen.
Green manure plants aren’t always showy – though some, like lupins ‘Blue Sonet’ and a flowering legume, have pretty flowers – but their role is to grow vigorously rather than be admired. Once established, you can dig them into the soil, chop them for mulch, or let them decompose for earthworms to incorporate. The real magic happens below the surface.
Now is the ideal time for sowing these overwintering crops. I’ve chosen forage rye, great for clay soil, Italian ryegrass, a weed-suppressor, and beans that aerate soil.
It feels rewarding in planting seeds that won’t stay forever – on the surface, anyway.
