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Raised Beds - green manure or plant quick crop?
in Fruit & veg
Hi,
Today i harvested all my sugar snaps, beetroot and shallots and i have about 50% of my raised bed empty. I noticed in a couple of the garden mags, mention of green manure.
I dont know anything about it and wondered if there is one type that is better than another, be it price, speed, quality of results for next year etc.
So could anyone give me some advice on what i should be looking to plant, i intend to do the whole raised bed eventually, should i do the free space now or plant some quick growing salad for now and then do the green manure once everything is out?
Andy
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Posts
It's entirely up to you really. As I understand it different green manures are supposed to be good for improving different aspects of your soil (most will fix nitrogen in the soil for example). I used buckwheat at the end of last summer to supress weeds and improve the soil, hopefully it did but as I'd never grown anything else there I can't be 100% sure, it did keep the weeds down though. On the other hand, as you say, you could get another quick cropping salad veg in and then use green manure in late summer, best of both worlds.
Most garden centres worth their salt stock the seeds these days.
Forgot to add the RHS have a good summary of what each manure is useful for.
http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/Profile.aspx?PID=373