Green manure adds colour over winter

WE’RE all familiar with farmyard manure, but what is a green manure? 

It is a beneficial cover crop, grown for a short while and incorporated into soil before it can set seed or fruit. If cultivated soil is left bare, it will lose nutrients, be taken over by weeds, erode, or become compressed due to rain and wind. In nature, you will never find bare soil, unless it has been degraded and turned into a desert. Green manures both improve and protect precious soil and are ecologically sound.

It makes good garden sense to grow green manures over winter, when most beds are empty. They improve soil, suppress weeds, and keep the garden ticking over until next spring. They are also useful in the summer, as a quick, growing, green manure crop nourishes soil in between crops. Green manures also make an ideal first crop, as they break up soil, increase its biomass, and get the soil life going.