Green manure

[mistymornings]

Good morning everyone

I am slowly digging over my new allotment and before I rush into planting I want to take time to look around and plan. The soil is quite heavy in places and will soon be populated with weeds with all the rain! I wondered if growing some green manure would help the soil condition and also give me time to plan carefully?

[chris]

Phacelia will improve the soil structure, by opening it up with it's root system.. You'll need to cut it down before it flowers (or more so before it self seeds... *everywhere*).

Rye grass will do too, but it's a bit difficult to dig back in.

[mothhawk]

Hi, mistymornings,
Green manure is not going to stop the weeds growing, so if you have a lot of perennial weeds you'll still have to get in there and keep pulling/digging them out. Better to spread some farmyard manure over to improve the heaviness, cover with cardboard to exclude the light and kill off any germinating seeds, and let the worms dig it in for you.

If it's annual weeds you're expecting to grow, they are a green manure themselves, just hoe off or dig in before they flower.

[Two_Sheds]

If it's annual weeds ... they are a green manure themselves, just hoe off or dig in before they flower.

That's what I've done this year, because of SO MANY weeds, and the daleks being full. I read One Straw Revolution (about this amazing old Japanese farmer who doesn't compost AT ALL, he just chops his old weeds & plants up and leaves them on the soil. He gets fabulous crops), and I was away.

I use green manures too, I prefer phacelia and alfalfa, and this year I'm trying buckwheat too

[mothhawk]

I had always imagined that buckwheat looks like ordinary wheat, but I've just goggled it and what a surprise! It's a flower, and a pretty one that bees love, and it grows fast - where can I get some?

Can the seed be home harvested and used, TS, or is it too much faff to thresh and dehusk, or can you grind it up husk and all to make flour?

[mistymornings]

I have got some seeds and am going to give it a go. I love the look of phacelia and it says to leave some to attract bees and hoverflies. Apparently several people in our field say it is good.

[Cue the Toms]

I have scattered some mustard seeds over one of my newly dug beds. This bed will be my root veg plot next year, so as I can't put animal muck on it I thought It might be worth growing some green muck to dig in later. Hopefully that will suppress the weeds a bit and put some goodness into the soil.

Chris

[Sylvan]

Where is the cheapest place to get phacelia?

[horticultural_hobbit]

Anyone mentioned Hungarian grazing rye? Apparently, it is good for clay type soils. I am meaning to try it, if the plot dries up. Fenugreek, whilst it can be used a ground cover, it can also be used in cooking. Clover, red and crimson are useful. You can get Fenugreek, by the bag, from any good Asian grocery shop. Mustard, is also available like that. That said, it was spikey, the one I had grow. So I'm not sure about that.

[Two_Sheds]

Anyone mentioned Hungarian grazing rye?

I've grown it, and found it nigh on impossible to "dig in" or out, or cut, or anything. It's like couch grass in that respect: tough and stubborn

[marchogaeth]

That's what I've done this year, because of SO MANY weeds, and the daleks being full. I read One Straw Revolution (about this amazing old Japanese farmer who doesn't compost AT ALL, he just chops his old weeds & plants up and leaves them on the soil. He gets fabulous crops), and I was away.

I use green manures too, I prefer phacelia and alfalfa, and this year I'm trying buckwheat too

After reading the Gertrude Franke book, Companion Planting (ISBN 0-7225-0694-5) I have done a lot of the same, grass clippings, cut down nettles, borage and comfrey have all gone straight on the soil between plants and without noticeably increasing my slug problem.

Any annual weeds or left overs from crops that I can't compost get chucked in a heap on a bed in a cardboard sandwich.

TS haven't you said before that you cut your green manures and them compost them only digging in the roots? This seems like a good way to get double value (or more)from a green manure area, especially if a space was set aside for growing it like a crop and it was harvested on a cut and come again basis either being composted or spread direct.

[Two_Sheds]

TS haven't you said before that you cut your green manures and them compost them only digging in the roots?

Not me. I cut my green manures and leave them on the soil. I don't dig in anything, ever.

[marchogaeth]

Not me. I cut my green manures and leave them on the soil. I don't dig in anything, ever.

Appologies then, it was a while ago. Anyway, as I remeber it, this person was growing the bulky stuff like rye grass and then chopping it off but a bit above soil level, digging in the residue and putting the green stuff in the compost bin. It's just another option .

[Deer hunter]

An intresting thread for me. As i am new with my first allotment this year. I first wondered what green manure was i thought it was the colour lol. I will learn alot on here i am glad i joined