Soil in need of some love? Plant green manure in your garden and you’ll enrich your soil.

Just the other day, I discovered a partially finished bottle of an energy drink 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 in disarray. But there’s a lot to be said for negligence; after returning from holiday, I spotted a sunflower sprouting in the back corner.

This week, though, some urgent tidying is underway. As I’m expecting a baby, I’ve enlisted a local gardener to remove troublesome weeds like a prickly weed and robinia saplings from the neighbour’s tree, but keeping desirable plants. Then, in the newly cleared patches, I’ll be sowing cover crops.

Cover crops act like heroes when it comes to boosting soil quality.

A fellow garden writer has written about green manure, as they play a key role in seasonal planting for vegetable plots. But, the only things I’m picking from my garden right now are a few scrumped apples and some woody herbs.

My ambitions for the garden are modest and consistent – and enhancing soil health is top of the list. For those wondering, the scaffolding is for roof repairs, and the garden boundaries are still wobbly, but the neighbours are on board with the plan.

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 vigorous crops, you can control weeds, attract pollinators, host pest-eating creatures, and enrich the soil with nutrients.

Cover crops aren’t always showy – though some, like certain lupin varieties and bird’s foot trefoil, have lovely blooms – but their role is to grow vigorously rather than look decorative. Once established, you can dig them into the soil, chop them for mulch, or leave them on the surface for earthworms to incorporate. Their work happens below the surface.

Now is the ideal time for sowing these cold-season plants. I’ve chosen forage rye, which breaks up heavy earth, a nitrogen-lifter, vetch, and field beans.

It feels rewarding in sowing something knowing it’s temporary – on the surface, anyway.