UK gardening - Leafmould and green manure

Author

Leafmould and green manure

jhudsy@gmail.com

2006-11-28, 1:25 pm

Hi,

I'm still new to allotment gardening, and on my travels around the
internet, I came across this:
http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/tod...eg_gard_now.php
A little before half way down the page, there's a picture of three beds
treated in different ways. It seems that the one which has been
leafmoulded (if that's the word) is doing brilliantly, but the one on
which green manure has been used seems to be doing even worse than the
one left to its own devices. Could that really be the case? If so, why
use green manure?

Any ideas would be welcome
Nir

Janet Galpin

2006-11-29, 9:25 am

The message <1164738864.332564.251160@h54g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>
from jhudsy@gmail.com contains these words:

> Hi,

> I'm still new to allotment gardening, and on my travels around the
> internet, I came across this:
> http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/tod...eg_gard_now.php
> A little before half way down the page, there's a picture of three beds
> treated in different ways. It seems that the one which has been
> leafmoulded (if that's the word) is doing brilliantly, but the one on
> which green manure has been used seems to be doing even worse than the
> one left to its own devices. Could that really be the case? If so, why
> use green manure?

> Any ideas would be welcome
> Nir

I haven't got any conclusive experience of using green manures. I've
used phacelia but not been aware that it's made any great difference.
I prefer to cover as much soil as possible with my own compost and I'm
surprised that the Garden Organic page focuses on leaf mould and leaves
out the effects of more general garden compost.

Janet G

Alan Holmes

2006-11-29, 5:25 pm

Alan Holmes <alan.holmes@nowhere.com> writes
>
><jhudsy@gmail.com> wrote in message
>news:1164738864.332564.251160@h54g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
>
>What is 'green manure'?
>
Plants that you seed and let grow thickly when you don't want to grow
anything else there, and then dig in to the soil when you want to grow
something else. 'Manure' because you're digging the goodness in the
plants into the soil.
--
Kay

Alan Holmes

2006-11-30, 1:25 pm

"K" <k@scarboro.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:SY6e9WHCOhbFFwkQ@scarboro.demon.co.uk...
> Alan Holmes <alan.holmes@nowhere.com> writes
> Plants that you seed and let grow thickly when you don't want to grow
> anything else there, and then dig in to the soil when you want to grow
> something else. 'Manure' because you're digging the goodness in the plants
> into the soil.

Thanks, should have known that, but the senile decay is getting worse!

Could you give an example of what to use?

Alan

> --
> Kay

Rupert $W.Yorkshire$

2006-11-30, 1:25 pm

"Alan Holmes" <alan.holmes@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:yUDbh.2026$3P4.927@newsfe7-gui.ntli.net...
>
> "K" <k@scarboro.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:SY6e9WHCOhbFFwkQ@scarboro.demon.co.uk...
>
> Thanks, should have known that, but the senile decay is getting worse!
>
> Could you give an example of what to use?
>
> Alan
>
>
Poor soul.The decay must be bad if you have forgotten about Google.
Here is a good link which is easy reading:-)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/basi...eenmanure.shtml

Rupert $W.Yorkshire$

2006-11-30, 1:25 pm

<jhudsy@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1164738864.332564.251160@h54g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> Hi,
>
> I'm still new to allotment gardening, and on my travels around the
> internet, I came across this:
> http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/tod...eg_gard_now.php
> A little before half way down the page, there's a picture of three beds
> treated in different ways. It seems that the one which has been
> leafmoulded (if that's the word) is doing brilliantly, but the one on
> which green manure has been used seems to be doing even worse than the
> one left to its own devices. Could that really be the case? If so, why
> use green manure?
>
> Any ideas would be welcome
> Nir
>

The idea of green manures is to lock up nutrients, from both the air and
soil, in the plant. The plant is then dug in and after decaying it releases
its goodies to the soil.
The decaying process takes time and consequently if veg/plants are sown too
soon then they will in effect be growing in depleted soil.
This explanation might fit the poor results you commented on.

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