Chard planted with/ in green manure? Sensible?

[Newton]

I have just lifted my first earlies and have some space!

I was wondering if it would be possible to plant green manure around chard plants? Would the green manure overpower the chard? I would hope the chard will crop well into next year but I appreciate the green manure needs chopping back or digging in!

Is this possible?

[roitelet]

I think that the green manure could be a problem ans the chard plants get big and chopping it down will be difficult also not easy to dig in. If the chard is far enough apart why not plant a low growing quick maturing crop between the plants. That will keep the ground in use and if it is too much for you then you can always give it away. I often use lettuce which fills the spaces and then we eat some, give some away or feed it to the chooks

[kathyd]

I had a mixture of green manure and other plants for a while, but coming at it from a different angle - I planted that pretty purple flowery thing that bees like - phacelia is it? - last year to overwinter, and let it self seed. Plants grew all over the place and I loved the flowers so I left them as long as possible. I planted brassicas, sweetcorn, beans, potatoes and squashes all mixed up with them, and dug in or broke off or dug up the green manures if and when they got too big. It depends on how closely your crops are planted, and how big your green manure gets I suppose - my brassicas were far enough apart for me to chop it down with a trowel and smash it to bits on the surface, then just swirl things around a bit .. I do like to take an organised and scientifically proven approach to things of course . I've bought some red clover to try this year, and was wondering a bit like you - should I scatter it amongst my existing brassicas to put some nitrogen back ready for the spring? But I suspect the bras would shade it out too much. I might scatter it lightly though, if I have any leftover seed, to see how it works .

[Two_Sheds]

I have various green manures around my plants, growing in and amongst them: I don't dig in, because I treat them as a mulch (I don't believe in digging in: it's better & easier to let the worms pull the stuff down for you)

Funnily enough, I'm using chard as a green manure, because it's self-seeded all over my potato patch. I just pull it and chop it up, then leave it on the soil

[Newton]

I'm with you on digging in TS. I'm learning........I suppose the chard needs to romp away first....it's only seedling at the moment.......Might buy some plants......