Grow your own fertility with green manures
Green manures are plants that are grown to improve the soil in organic gardens. They can suppress weeds, improve the soil structure, prevent evaporation and soil erosion and even make the soil more fertile than it was before - you just need to choose the right green manure for your situation.
How to choose a green manure
Choose the right green manure to sow
There are many different plants that can be used as green manures. When you decide to grow one, you need to choose the right green manure for your garden.
In the spring time choosing a green manure depends on how long you want it to be in the ground for, why you're sowing it and your crop rotation. Follow the link to find out more.
If you want to sow a green manure in the fall, then choosing is easy - there aren't many that will grow overwinter! Read my article on green manures for autumn, or listen to episode 27 of The Alternative Kitchen Garden show.
In the spring time choosing a green manure depends on how long you want it to be in the ground for, why you're sowing it and your crop rotation. Follow the link to find out more.
If you want to sow a green manure in the fall, then choosing is easy - there aren't many that will grow overwinter! Read my article on green manures for autumn, or listen to episode 27 of The Alternative Kitchen Garden show.
How to use green manures in your garden
Find out how to grow green manures
Once you've chosen your green manure, it's time to grow them. It's an easy, low maintenance process.
Check out how to grow green manures.
Check out how to grow green manures.
The Green Manurista
How to dig in your green manures
Trefoil
A low-growing green manure
Trefoil is unusual as a green manure because it is used while other crops are still in place.Trefoil is very low growing, and adds nitrogen to the soil, so it makes a great living mulch. Sow it under hungry plants like fruit bushes in spring.
It also helps to confuse the cabbage white butterfly, so sow it underneath brassicas.
Hungarian grazing rye
Secale cereale
Hungarian grazing rye is an excellent green manure to sow if you have heavy soil that needs breaking up. Grazing rye has strong, deep roots that can relieve soil compaction and improve soil structure.
Hungarian grazing rye can be sown from early spring right through until late autumn, and is one of the few green manures that will overwinter and protect the soil from winter weather.
It's not bad at preventing weeds either! The only downsides with Hungarian grazing rye is that is can be tough to dig in, and for a few weeks after being dug in it will prevent seed germination - so don't sow seeds there for a few weeks.
Hungarian grazing rye can be sown from early spring right through until late autumn, and is one of the few green manures that will overwinter and protect the soil from winter weather.
It's not bad at preventing weeds either! The only downsides with Hungarian grazing rye is that is can be tough to dig in, and for a few weeks after being dug in it will prevent seed germination - so don't sow seeds there for a few weeks.
Comfrey
The organic gardener's best friend
Comfrey is a perennial plant, and so doesn't fit the profile of a conventional green manure. However, it is grown specifically to provide fertility for the organic garden.Comfrey leaves can be used to line the planting holes for potatoes and get your crop off to a good start. Comfrey can be made into a rich liquid feed that your fruiting vegetables will love. And if that's not enough, bees love it's flowers.
Learn more about comfrey in episode 7 of The Alternative Kitchen Garden podcast.
Buckwheat
Fagopyrum esculentum
Buckwheat can be sown from late spring until late summer, and is left in place for 1-3 months. It doesn't fix nitrogen in the soil, but it thrives on poor soils which are badly in need of improvement.
To improve the soil, Buckwheat should be dug in before it flowers. However, leaving a small area to flower can also be beneficial because the flowers will provide a food source for hoverflies and other beneficial insects.
To improve the soil, Buckwheat should be dug in before it flowers. However, leaving a small area to flower can also be beneficial because the flowers will provide a food source for hoverflies and other beneficial insects.
Where to buy green manure seeds
Online seed stores to try
If you have a link to add to this list then please leave a comment
- Suttons Seeds
- Suttons sell a wide variety of flower and vegetable seeds, together with some green manures
- Dobies
- Vegetable & flower seeds and plants
- The Organic Gardening Catalogue
- The catalogue for organic and environmentally friendly gardeners - organic seeds for vegetables, heritage and modern varieties, herbs, flowers and green manures, organic composts and fertilisers, biological pest controls, organic gardening books and gifts.
- Kings Seeds
- Welcome to Kings Seeds, a leading supplier of vegetable, flower, herb and Sweet Pea seed, from the traditional home of the British seed industry, Kelvedon, Essex, who have been supplying commercial and retail growers since 1888.
- Tuckers Seeds
- Tuckers Seeds offers you a unique opportunity to browse through and purchase our products securely online. We have a vast range of seeds for vegetables, flowers, lawn, amenity grass, onions, shallots, potatoes, mushrooms, fruit and miscellaneous items.
Guestbook
Are you growing green manures?
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- AppalachianCountry AppalachianCountry Jul 27, 2009 @ 12:23 pm
- Wonderful lens. This is such a great idea. Thank-you for the info and great video.
5 stars*****
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- GonnaFly GonnaFly May 27, 2009 @ 7:42 pm
- Thanks for this info Emma. Growing some green manure is something I will definitely have to try!
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- AndrewGreen AndrewGreen May 13, 2009 @ 6:35 am
- Really good lens. I must admit that i have not tried this Green manure idea. I will certainly give it a go in the future.
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- clayton clayton Apr 26, 2009 @ 1:49 am
- just read your article and it gave me a couple of more things to try. thanks, i hope there,s more links from here for further investigating. i have 2-3 acres of just cleared
land. will let you know next year what i used and the improvement. i am looking at at least 6 differant plants and grasses.
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- Tigga Tigga Oct 14, 2008 @ 5:44 am
- I know of one 84 year old lady who still cares of an allotment. She plants a row of comfrey between each row of vegetables. After cropping the vegetables and before planting the next lot, she cuts the comfrey to the ground and digs it in.
Great lens I have 5* ranked it.
Organic Food Gardening
by EmmaCooper
You can check out my gardening blog and some more of my gardening articles on my website: http://coopette.com
I also produce a podcast called the Alter...
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