🔗 Share this article Want to give your soil some TLC? Sow cover crops in your garden and you’ll improve your yields. Just the other day, I discovered a half-empty bottle of Lucozade placed in the euphorbia trough by one of the scaffolders. An architect friend commented, “Are you sure that’s Lucozade?” which made me see it differently. All this is to say, the garden is a bit of a mess. But there’s a lot to be said for negligence; after returning from holiday, I spotted a sunflower growing in the back corner. Now, however, some urgent tidying is underway. Being six months pregnant, I’ve enlisted a professional gardener to tackle invasive plants like a prickly weed and robinia saplings from the neighbour’s tree, while leaving the good stuff. Next, in the newly cleared patches, I’ll be sowing cover crops. Green manure are superheroes when it comes to improving soil health. My gardening friend Claire has previously discussed cover crops, as they play a key role in seasonal planting for edible gardens. But, the only things I’m harvesting from my garden right now are a few foraged apples and some woody herbs. My garden goals are modest and consistent – and improving the soil is top of the list. For those wondering, the scaffolding is for roof repairs, and the fences are still wobbly, but the neighbours are on board with replacing them. Green manure are like superheroes for your garden’s foundation. Soil likes to be covered, which is why unwanted plants pop up. But by sowing fast-growing plants, you can control weeds, attract pollinators, host pest-eating creatures, and enrich the soil with nutrients. Cover crops may not look exciting – though some, like lupins ‘Blue Sonet’ and a flowering legume, have pretty flowers – but their role is to thrive rather than look decorative. After they’ve grown, you can turn them under, chop them for mulch, or let them decompose for earthworms to pull down. The real magic happens below the surface. Now is the ideal time for sowing these cold-season plants. My selection includes forage rye, great for clay soil, a nitrogen-lifter, vetch, and beans that aerate soil. It feels rewarding in planting seeds that won’t stay forever – on the surface, anyway.