Green Manures

To the organic gardener, Comfrey is invaluable. It’s easy to grow, easy to use and incredibly beneficial to the garden. Leaves can be used as a top dressing or chopped and mixed with leaf mould to make a base for potting compost. You can make your own organic liquid feed or use as a compost activator.

‘Landsberger’ is the ultimate in winter green manure. Deep rooting and an excellent nitrogen fixer. With prolific growth it is an excellent ground cover. This highly esteemed mix is suitable for overwintering and can be sown throughout autumn until November.

A high quality White Mustard variety, this cool season, fast growing crop produces large volumes of green matter and residual fibre. It is particularly good for soil that lacks organic matter as it helps to improve soil texture and moisture retention. Sow to September.

As a green manure Tares are an excellent choice for heavy soils, they produce a lot of bulky foliage that suppresses weeds, adds organic matter and improves the texture of the soil. Easy to dig in, this hardy annual can be sown in spring to dig in later in summer or sown in autumn to overwinter.

The more I see of this rather attractive little plant, the more I grow to appreciate it. Now I seem to spot it all over the place, in meadows, woodland, road verges and gardens. The bright yellow fragrant flowers can be seen in blossom from the end of April through until mid September.

The Stinging Nettle is a very valuable plant, used for food and medicine by traditional cultures for hundreds of years. This wild herb is one of the most useful plants we have. Most useful to the organic gardener they can be used to make nitrogen-rich liquid feed for your plants.