Sowing Seeds that will Improve the Soil...Growing Green Manure Plants, cover crops

Seeds to improve the soil in your vegetable plot.  There are seeds that you can sow and grow that can improve the soil of your vegetable plot.  In the UK we call the seeds that are grown in this way - Green Manure they are sometimes referred to as cover crops.

These seeds when grown and dug in can add nutrients,nitrogen and organic matter to the soil, so they are a useful

Green manure what is it used for?

Use of Green Manure.

What is the purpose of green manure and what is it used for ?

Green manures are crops grown to help:

• Building soil structure - humus.
• Add organic matter to the soil - to dig in.
• Add nitrogen and nutrients after producing a following crop - replenish the soil
• Prevent weed growth - they provide competition for light and space with the weeds.

Phacelia is an easy to grow green manure.
Grown from seed but autumn is not the right time to plant this green manure.

This is the green manure crop mustard;
it is supposed to be good for clearing the ground of wire worm
which can be a nuisance in potato crops.

They can be used when the ground is 'idle' between growing crops.

Different types of green manure need to be used at different times of the year, for different purposes and on different soil types. the retailers of the green manure seeds usually have useful pages of information on this.