I recently found a partially finished bottle of Lucozade left behind in the euphorbia trough by one of the scaffolders. An architect friend joked, “Are you sure that’s Lucozade?” giving me a new perspective.
All this is to say, the garden is a bit of a mess. 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 urgent tidying is underway. Being six months pregnant, I’ve hired a professional gardener to tackle invasive plants like green alkanet and robinia saplings from the neighbour’s tree, while leaving the good stuff. Then, 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 previously discussed green manure, as they play a key role in seasonal planting for vegetable plots. But, the only things I’m harvesting from my garden right now are a few foraged apples and some hardy herbs.
My ambitions for the garden are modest and consistent – and enhancing soil health is my main priority. To update concerned readers, the scaffold is for roof repairs, and the garden boundaries are still wobbly, but the neighbours are on board with replacing them.
Green manure are like superheroes for soil health. Bare soil invites weeds, which is why weeds appear. Yet by sowing fast-growing plants, you can suppress weeds, bring in bees, host pest-eating creatures, and fix nitrogen.
Cover crops aren’t always showy – though some, like certain lupin varieties and a flowering legume, have pretty flowers – but their role is to thrive rather than look decorative. Once established, you can turn them under, chop them for mulch, or leave them on the surface for worms to incorporate. Their work happens below the surface.
Now is the ideal time for sowing these overwintering crops. I’ve chosen forage rye, which breaks up heavy earth, Italian ryegrass, a weed-suppressor, and beans that aerate soil.
There’s satisfaction in planting seeds that won’t stay forever – at least above ground.
