Green Manure

I'm rescuing some raised beds from a covering of brambles, bind weed and other big weeds. I killed them off with ground clear sprayed in late Sept and have dug the beds out this weekend removing all the roots I can find down to about 2ft.

I know I can't grow anything in the soil until 6 months after the ground clear and the soil is quite heavy clay so want to put some nutrition back into it. I will buy some rotted manure in the summer but before then I'd planned to cover with green manure in the spring. Partly to keep the weeds at bay and partly to help the soil.

Has anyone got experience of using green manure and any recommendations of crops to go for?

 

Be thoughtful about planting any of the Brassica green manures if you have had club root in the past, or perhaps if you will be growing Brassicas in part of the bed.

The piddling little packets that you get in the garden centres don't go very far, so I buy "bigger packets" from Moles Seeds. Moles normally don't charge any postage for their seeds, but they do for Beans and the like ... and Green Manures.

There are some useful descriptions of the various products on their website:
http://www.molesseeds.co.uk/flower_and_vegetable_seed_store_uk/Products_Green_Manure_3650.html

 

Thanks Kristen! I had planned to grow some Broccoli & Cabbages in one of the beds so ill be sure to keep them away from the worst bed.

How long do you usually leave it between digging in and planting veg or seeds?

 

Straight away, you've either killed the green manure crop or you haven't.

I usually use yellow mustard, which I eat anyway so its not a problem if it comes back up

 

To be on the safe side just use a green manure which is NOT in the Brassica family (at least in that part of the plot, but you will probably find a suitable non-Brassica one which you can use for the whole lot).

Mustard is the obvious choice, its quick. Its also a Brassica :(

Don't get too paranoid about that though ... unless you know you have had clubroot on the plot in the past, in which case definitely avoid them.

 

I don't know enough about the garden to know if we have or haven't had club foot. I also don't really know what club foot is!

Worst problems are bindweed & brambles. Lots of that beneath the ground unfortunately.

 

Clubroot NOT club foot!! I should really turn the auto correct off my iPhone ☺