🔗 Share this article

Just the other day, I discovered a partially finished bottle of Lucozade placed in the euphorbia trough by one of the scaffolders. An architect friend commented, “Are you sure that’s Lucozade?” giving me a new perspective.

In short, the garden is in disarray. Sometimes neglect has its perks; coming back from a trip, I spotted a sunflower sprouting in the back corner.

Now, however, some urgent tidying is underway. As I’m expecting a baby, I’ve enlisted a local gardener to remove troublesome weeds like green alkanet and robinia saplings from the neighbour’s tree, but keeping desirable plants. Next, in the newly cleared patches, I’ll be sowing cover crops.

Green manure are superheroes when it comes to improving soil health.

My gardening friend Claire has previously discussed cover crops, as they are essential in crop rotation for vegetable plots. However, the only things I’m harvesting from my garden right now are a few scrumped apples and some woody herbs.

My ambitions for the garden are modest and consistent – and enhancing soil health is top of the list. For those wondering, the scaffolding 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 your garden’s foundation. Soil likes to be covered, which is why unwanted plants pop up. Yet by sowing vigorous crops, you can suppress weeds, attract pollinators, shelter beneficial insects, and fix nitrogen.

Cover crops may not look exciting – though some, like certain lupin varieties and bird’s foot trefoil, have pretty flowers – but their role is to grow vigorously rather than look decorative. Once established, 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 overwintering crops. My selection includes rye grass, which breaks up heavy earth, Italian ryegrass, a weed-suppressor, and field beans.

It feels rewarding in planting seeds knowing it’s temporary – at least above ground.