Sowing fall green manures for a beautiful organic garden!

Some plants have the property of fertilizing the soil: they are called ‘green fertilizers’. In contrast to synthetic products, they have been brought back into fashion thanks to organic farming which uses them to maintain a level of production while respecting Nature. So how do you go about implementing an autumn green fertilizer in the garden?

THE Green fertilizers are very effective tools for enriching the soil and producing organic food without breaking the bank. You still need to know how to sow them and make sure they succeed. Their maintenance is not particularly complicated if you follow a few basic rules… Our advice for sow green manure in autumn.

When to sow autumn green manure?

To successfully sow your seeds, you will need: start by knowing when your land will be available at the end of the seasonnamely from August. This is really something to anticipate because many autumn green manures are sown once summer is well underway.

Read also: What exactly is green fertilizer?

To prepare things, Then consider making a plan of your vegetable garden to know which parts should be free so that fertilizers can be sown there once August comes.

Autumn green manures have the particularity of resisting frost and will thus be able to survive the winter until spring. It is then that they can be cut and incorporated into the soil. In the meantime, they will have prevented the winter from impoverishing the soil, by covering it evenly and limiting the effects of precipitation.

If they are called “autumn green fertilizers”, it is mainly becausethey will grow during the fall. They should therefore not be sown too late, because if they grow poorly or too little, they will not have enough vigor to survive the winter.

Green manure in autumn: which plants for which purposes?

Crimson clover

Ideal for sowing as autumn green manure, crimson clover knows how to make itself useful. Not content with being resistant and nitrogen-fixing air in its roots – which it will release when it is reincorporated into the soil in the spring-, Crimson clover will work the soil for you. In fact, its roots are long and powerful enough to loosen it.

Rye

Rye is a grass that will be up to the task and that you will not need to sow as early as August. Resistant, it can be sown until very late in the season (November).

Rye has many advantages as a fall green manure © Tibesty

Its very powerful root system will loosen your soil in depth. even if the soil is poor. Ideal if you have just reclaimed a plot of land to make a vegetable garden, and the soil is compacted!

Green manure mixes

It is possible to aim for several objectives to your green manure sowing whether in spring or at the start of autumn.

The market in this area is increasingly developed, you will just need to find out in the same way as for all the green fertilizers that you wish to put in place, taking care to intersperse information !

For example, you can imagine a “autumn green manure” mixture of rye and crimson cloverbecause one is a legume and the other is a grass, which complement each other well in the objectives of green manures. In addition, these two plants do not compete with each other.

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