How To Make Green Manure: An Organic Solution for a Thriving Garden

Understanding the Concept of Green Manure

When we talk about green manure, we refer to plant materials grown specifically for soil improvement. Unlike the usual crops that gardeners grow for consumption, green manure crops are grown to enhance the soil's nutrients and texture. These plants are grown during off-seasons, before planting a garden, or after harvesting vegetables and herbs.

The term "green manure" often gets interchanged with "cover crop." Technically, a cover crop becomes green manure when it's tilled into the garden. This practice is common among commercial farmers who want to get the most out of their cash crops. But it's also beneficial for home gardeners looking to improve their soil's fertility.

What Makes Green Manure Beneficial?

Apart from improving soil fertility, green manure cover crops serve other crucial purposes. They:

• Prevent soil erosion
• Suppress weed growth
• Reduce soil compaction
• Attract pollinators
• Provide a habitat for wildlife

Green Manure Varieties

Green manure can be any plant material integrated into the soil instead of being harvested or removed. However, specific types of plants are grown for this purpose. The most common are legumes and fast-growing grasses.

Legume Green Manure

Legumes like vetch, clover, beans, and peas are popular cover crops. They're particularly beneficial because they can fix nitrogen in the soil. These plants are grown in areas where nitrogen-hungry vegetables are intended to be planted.

Popular legume cover crops include different types of clover (white, red, and sweet), hairy vetch, alfalfa, beans, peas, and soybeans.

Grass Green Manure

Grasses such as annual ryegrass, oats, rapeseed, winter wheat, winter rye, and buckwheat are also used as cover crops for green manure. These plants grow quickly, making them suitable for planting before or after summer crops.

Planting Legume Cover Crops

For legumes, gardeners generally plant them in the spring when the soil temperature is suitable. These crops need an entire season to fix nitrogen effectively. After harvesting the peas or beans, gardeners chop up the plants and dig them into the soil. This method retains much of the available nitrogen.

Planting Grass Cover Crops

For non-legume grasses, gardeners can plant the cover crops in the spring. As these crops grow quickly, they can be tilled into the soil in early summer before planting warm-season vegetables.

Utilizing Green Manure Without Cover Crops

Even if you don't plant cover crops, you can still reap some benefits of green manure. Vegetable and flower gardeners can alter their winterizing routine to let existing plant material decompose over the winter. The dead material can then be churned into the garden soil in the spring.

An important tip to remember is that you may encourage many self-seeded volunteers to sprout up in the spring if you follow this approach. If these volunteers are not wanted, deadheading the flowers and fruit in the fall will prevent such self-seeding.

Key Green Manure Plants

There are numerous green manure plants you could consider for your garden, each with its unique benefits and requirements. Here are some cultivars you might want to try:

• Alfalfa ( Medicago sativa )
• Alsike clover ( Trifolium hybridum )
• Bitter blue lupin ( Lupinus angustifolius )
• Buckwheat ( Fagopyrum esculentum )
• Crimson clover ( Trifolium incarnatum )
• Essex red clover ( Trifolium pratense )
• Fenugreek ( Trigonella foenum-graecum )
• Grazing rye ( Secale cereale )
• Mustard ( Sinapis alba )
• Phacelia ( Phacelia tanacetifolia )
• Trefoil ( Medicago lupulina )
• Winter field bean ( Vicia faba )
• Winter tares ( Vicia sativa )

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