Green Manure and Seedlings

The picture off to the left may be a little uninspiring, but while green shoots may be claimed or disputed elsewhere in the world, the green manure in our garden is popping itself merrily out of the soil.

The two beds we have by the greenhouse and just in front of our garden wall need a bit of work. The large laurel hedge just over the wall has presumably sucked almost all of the nutrients out of the soil, so the rather sad ground needs a bit of improving. We've decided to give green manure a go this year - plants that can be grown and then dug back into the soil to give it a bit of pep.

We ordered Mustard White Tilney from the nice people at Simpsons Seeds and sowed the seeds directly into the soil about a week back - it's good to see them growing. Apparently they reach the stage when you can dig them in after about a month or month and a half.



Apparently sunflowers also make a great green manure, as well as something fun to grow with kids. They can be dug back into the soil once they're done - and the seed heads provide great food for birds too. So, beside the green manure bed, we've got some sunflower seeds under a long plastic cloche-y thing (see the pic, at the top). Other seeds are also doing pretty well. One of our new raised beds (also see above) is now home to some radishes and salad leaves, as well as some broad beans, under the bell cloches and sewn directly into the soil. The other broad bean strategy - to propagate them before planting out - also seems to be going well at the moment: the seedlings are looking nice and healthy:



I really hope the beetroot grows well. We'll get through a lot of beetroot in the late part of the year. So versatile, in red flannel hash, dressed with a vinaigrette as a salad, roast with other root vegetables, or even turned into a sumptuous chocolate cake:




Similarly, home-grown tomatoes are great for all sorts of things. There's nothing like a fresh tomato from the garden and they can be preserved as frozen tomato sauce, spicy tomato chutney and even when unripe as green tomato chutney to brighten up the winter: