🔗 Share this article Want to give your soil some TLC? Sow green manure in your garden and you’ll improve your yields. Just the other day, I discovered a half-empty bottle of an energy drink placed in the euphorbia trough by one of the scaffolders. An architect friend joked, “Are you sure that’s Lucozade?” which made me see it differently. All this is to say, the garden is a bit of a mess. But there’s a lot to be said for negligence; after returning from holiday, I spotted a sunflower growing in the back corner. This week, though, some necessary firefighting is underway. Being six months pregnant, I’ve enlisted a local gardener to remove invasive plants like a prickly weed and young tree shoots from the neighbour’s tree, while leaving the good stuff. Next, in the open patches, I’ll be sowing green manure. Cover crops act like heroes when it comes to improving soil health. A fellow garden writer has written about green manure, as they play a key role 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 simple and steady – and enhancing soil health is top of the list. To update concerned readers, the scaffold is for roof repairs, and the fences are still wobbly, but the neighbours are on board with the plan. Green manure are like superheroes for soil health. Bare soil invites weeds, which is why weeds appear. But by sowing fast-growing plants, you can suppress weeds, attract pollinators, host pest-eating creatures, and fix nitrogen. Green manure plants may not look exciting – though some, like lupins ‘Blue Sonet’ and a flowering legume, have lovely blooms – but their purpose is to thrive rather than look decorative. After they’ve grown, you can dig them into the soil, cut them for compost, or leave them on the surface for worms to pull down. The real magic happens underground. Autumn is perfect for sowing these cold-season plants. My selection includes rye grass, great for clay soil, Italian ryegrass, vetch, and field beans. There’s satisfaction in planting seeds knowing it’s temporary – at least above ground.