Autumn – time for green manure

Hi everyone,

Autumn is a great time of year to get out in the garden. It’s when good organisation can set you up for a successful growing season. For the veggie growers amongst us we will be busy clearing our plots from the spent crops and thinking about what to do next. If you’ve decided to opt out of planting a Winter crop and leave the veggie patch empty then planting green manure is a good option.

Green manure is a crop grown in your garden to add life back into your soil. Once it gets to its peak you simply dig it back into your veggie patch. The use of green manure crops in a rotation has long been a practice of sustainable farming. It also stops the weeds from moving in.

Common green manure crops include:

• Legumes – such as cow pea, mung bean, broad bean, fenugreek and soybean. These add nitrogen (vital for food crops) to the soil. Broad bean is a favourite.
• Grains and grasses – such as millet, buckwheat and oats.

These crops can often be sown together to give a combination of nitrogen fixing crops and strong addition of organic matter.

For more details, go to:

https://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/blog-latestposts.php?catid=101

Source: Autumn Tasks for Winter Gardens, Green Lifestyle, http://www.greenlifestylemag.com.au/node/20450, Green Manure in your food garden, City Food Growers, https://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/blog-latestposts.php?catid=101

Consider planting green manure this season to give your soil a healthy boost.

Many thanks, Lila

Resource Management Specialist,