Green manure

[tommy the cat]

Looking at green manure for my clay soil. I'm planting wizard beans but I've read grazing rye ( i think).to keep the weds down???
I've heard good and bad about this?
I was toying with idea of a heavy straw mulch to do the same job???
Any thoughts?
D

 

[zornt]

There was a mention of planting buckwheat in the Square Foot Gardening book. Might look for it to get more info.

 

[beachlover]

Can I ask what is wrong with brown manure?

 

[British Red]

Mulches work. Today my buddy, our wives and I shovelled up 20 cubic metres of wood chip from a tree extraction site. Hot sweaty work. My half will go on the gooseberry bed 6" thick. Over three years it will rot to nothing (suppressing weeds for three years). I have done this for five years on our herb bed, never dug it. The soil is like fruit cake - dark, rich, soft, fertile.

Good old horse muck works too. The new neighbours the four of us sorted thirty trees for are horse trainers who were wondering how to get rid of the manure. We solved that problem for them

We have put several inches of manure on our veg beds for years in the Autumn - rotovating it in for spring. I'm amazed how much the soil can take - but it pays dividends for sure.

If you do want to go green manure - try clover - great, fast growing, nitrogen fixing, ground covering, simple to turn in.

 

[tommy the cat]

Ok thanks for that .
I've got access to we'll rotted horse muck and a trailer ☺
My friend is an arborist so wood chips not a problem...I'm guessing you don't manure root beds??
I'm going to try the field beans Hugh plus mulch. ..will look into clover.. how come you only rotate the manure in in the spring?? Thanks everyone d

 

[British Red]

The frost breaks it up over winter Dave. Then the rain washes it in and the worms take it down. A lot of the work is done for you

 

[tommy the cat]

Makes sense ☺

 

[unruly]

I've grown field beans in clay soil and they did fine until the deer had them.
White clover does OK in the heavy clay as well.

 

[unruly]

update - I've had better results with forage peas.

 

[tommy the cat]

I planted field beans and they are about two feet high already!!!! Was wondering if to cut the tops of and leave them mulched on the soil now????
Im not sure of the benefit of leaving them in over winter other than keeping the soil structure etc?