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?” 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.
Now, however, some necessary firefighting is underway. As I’m expecting a baby, I’ve enlisted a professional gardener to remove invasive plants like a prickly weed and robinia saplings from the neighbour’s tree, but keeping desirable plants. Then, in the newly cleared patches, I’ll be sowing green manure.
Green manure are superheroes when it comes to boosting soil quality.
My gardening friend Claire has written about cover crops, as they are essential 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 improving the soil is top of the list. For those wondering, the scaffold is for roof repairs, and the garden boundaries are still wobbly, but the neighbours agree with the plan.
Cover crops are like superheroes for soil health. Soil likes to be covered, which is why unwanted plants pop up. Yet by sowing fast-growing plants, you can suppress weeds, bring in bees, shelter beneficial insects, and enrich the soil with nutrients.
Cover crops may not look exciting – though some, like lupins ‘Blue Sonet’ and a flowering legume, have pretty flowers – but their role is to thrive rather than be admired. After they’ve grown, you can dig them into the soil, cut them for compost, or leave them on the surface for earthworms to pull down. The real magic happens underground.
Now is the ideal time for sowing these cold-season plants. I’ve chosen rye grass, great for clay soil, a nitrogen-lifter, vetch, and field beans.
There’s satisfaction in planting seeds that won’t stay forever – on the surface, anyway.
