Field beans as green manure

[headburro]

Hi - I'm new here as well as being very new to veg gardening. I'm currently double digging over a section of my back garden hoping that the predicted winter frosts will break it up for me. In the meantime I have sown some field beans in the hope they will help improve the heavy, wet soil as well as help ‘slurp’ some of the water away from what is a very wet area.

My question is will the beans germinate in my heavy, cold and wet soil? I realise I may well have answered my own question in the description of the soil, but I don't know if field beans are very tolerant or not.

If the beans won't make it, can anyone suggest a green manure crop that I could plant now?

I have more information and photos of my efforts over on my website: www.wildburro.co.uk

Cheers, David.
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[andrewo]

Phacelia

David,
Don't know if this will help as I am in the same region as you but have found phacelia a good green manure (and cheap to boot) and mustard. I seeded mine last month and they are coming up strong - you may be just in time to get some in the ground but may have to cover with fleece.

If not suggest you revert to chicken pellets. Or manure itself!

Andrewo

[headburro]

Re: Field beans as green manure

Cheers Andrew - lovely weather over these parts this weekend, eh?

Thanks for the advice on clover - I very nearly went for that when I bought the beans, but something (I forget what) stopped me. The original idea was to use manure but the place nearby had a problem. Still, I'm in touch with them and I should be picking a few bags up soon.

[andrewo]

Wind

I don't think we need to worry about what green manure we use but how we're going to get in the ground with all these high winds!!!

Terrible weather....

Andrewo

[Jaxom]

Down here in Wales we have had rain every day for a month. The ground is so wet that my lawn is starting to rot. I had a wonderful lawn a few months ago. now all I have is a few blades of grass and all the rest is mud. I would never have belived that grass could rot in the ground. Normaly the ground is free draining but there is nowhere for the rain to drain off to. I bought a new large water butt for catching the rain off my green house and my little 6'x8' provided enough water off just one side of the roof to fill it to the brim in just three days. Things have always been wet here in lush green Wales but this year I have started to seriously think about going in to Ark building.

[headburro]

30 days of rain

Blimey - you have my sympathy. A whole month of rain must be depressing and no mistake. As Andrew mentioned, here has been windy as well as wet although Preston is sheltered enough to mean the winds are less of a problem and it hasn't rainedfor a full month (just feels like it). Still, I'll have to give some serious thought to stability for tall plants next year, and not just drainage