Green manures are fast growing plants which can benefit the gardener in many ways – they can prevent weed growth, create habitat for beneficial insects, add goodness to the soil and prevent goodness being washed out the soil.
Autumn sowings of green manure mostly fit into the ‘prevent goodness being washed out of the soil’. If you’ve spent all year working soil, adding goodness to soil and cropping soil then soil left bare can have the majority of their goodness washed out by pounding winter rains, this can also leave the soil compacted.
Green Manures are simple to apply, simply scatter seeds of plants such as Red Clover over the soil, lightly rake in and leave to grow. In the spring when your ready to plant chop this down and dig it into the soil 2 weeks prior to planting…..its a simple job. in early spring we use a green manure Phacelia a lot in the gardens, sown on bare ground and worked in a couple of months later, Mustard is another fast reward green manure, and can be worked in 6 weeks or so after sowing.
Cost wise, Green Manure Mustard will cost about £1.50 and cover around 20m2, this represents great value for the all the benefit it does…
Check out the Royal Horticultural Society website for more ins and outs of Green Manure application
Gareth Austin is a Community focused Horticulturist based in Derry-Londonderry and voice of Gardening on the Mark Patterson Show on BBC Radio Foyle. Gareth specialises in Community horticulture, offering a wide range of events, programmes and acitivity on engaging people in the exciting world of Horticulture. Gareth lectures in Horticulture in the North West Regional College and offers school horticulture programs through the Western Education + Library Board. Gareth is passionate about changing land-use to a more positive use, urban food production and showcasing the flora of county Derry through the City of Horti-Culture programme of events.
