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How to use green manures

How to use green manures

Green manures are a traditional technique rapidly coming back into fashion. They are simply short-term crops that are specifically grown to be dug back into the soil, adding much needed organic matter and nutrients. There are six main advantages from growing green manures:

The main drawback with green manures is that you have to leave the ground fallow while the green manure is growing. In the vegetable garden, this is easy to achieve as it is usually separated into clearly defined sections so an area can simply be put aside to grow green manures. It might be more impractical or undesirable to leave unproductive areas of soil for that length of time in a more ornamental part of the garden. However, lupins can be used as green manures, so you could have a blazing block of them!

Adding fertility to your soil

picture of soil being dug with green maureApart from adding organic matter, some green manures offer other benefits. For example, deep-rooting green manures such as alfalfa, red clover and lupins will use nutrients from deep in the soil beyond the reach of many annual crops. Then when the green manure decomposes in the soil, the nutrients are deposited in the upper layers where follow-on crops and plants can utilise them. Similarly, leguminous plants such as beans, lupins, clover and fenugreek, have special nodules on their roots filled with 'nitrogen-fixing' bacteria that can take nitrogen from the air and make it available to the green manure. Again, when the green manure decomposes, the nitrogen then becomes available to follow-on crops and plants.

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