Green manure!

[w33blegurl]

Morning!

I sowed green manure (mix of field greens and rye grass - I think!) on a couple of the lottie beds last year. As per the instructions I have chopped up the leaves and then just dug the bed over. However....the lovely green manure plants just keep on popping back up like weeds! Short of hand weeding them out (which rather defeats the purpose of them having been sown in there in the first place) what should I do? Where did I go wrong (I am a green manure beginner!)?
Thanks!

[snakeshack]

you need to chop well and make sure all the greenery is buried, possibly digging deeper than you are.also all green manures are different,some are for long term, some short, I like to use phacelia for quick coverage nd if left to flower provides attractive bee forage and weed suppressant.It also does not survive the winter well reducing regrowth issues in spring

[sparrow100]

I feel your pain! I sowed hungarian rye too and it just keeps coming back. Am going to turn it deep into the ground when my ground dries out enough.

[ESBkevin]

I agree with snakeshack, chop and drop a week before you dig so it wilts. When you dig you must turn it over thoroughly and bury the roots. I did similar to you on a slightly larger strip and used a plough to turn it. I had some difficulty/lack of experience getting a clean burial of all the green manure roots back in February and attacked them a month later with a rotavator to turn in a little home made compost in the top 4". The soil is now looking very nice and I will be doing more green manure cover at the end of the growing season on some beds.