WHEN I first heard the term ‘‘green manure’, I was ap-
prehensive, as I am sure most of you are, about allowing
something with such ghastly implications on to my garden

beds.

It doesn’t take a very vivid
imagination to picture green ma-
nure in such grisly scenes as would
make good use of some very nasty
adjectives.

Obviously, I am not about to
disgust you with lurid tales of
some of the more bizarre practices
of the feeble-minded folk found in
Deliverance.

Therefore, it is safe to assume
that there is more to green manure
than one would, at first, assume,

Simply put, green manure is a
cover crop that has been grown
specifically for plowing back into
the garden some of the humus that
was depleted over the past year.

This is one of the easiest
methods of supplying some ex-
cellent sources of organic additives
or humus.

The characteristics looked for in
a crop that is to be used in this
manner are easy germination in
cooler weather, quick growth, and
low after-planting maintenance.

Some of the best choices with
these attributes are fall or winter
rye,-other rye grasses, buckwheat,
mustard, and rape.

The most commonly available

and one cf the best of these is fall
rye.

The use of a green manure will
build the humus content of soils,
which is good; it can also tem-
porarily lower thy amount of solu-
ble nitrogen in the soil, which is
bad.

Any organic material appearing
in your garden soil is immediately
attacked by microbes and enzymes
which will break it down into
humus.

During this rotting or com-
posting process, these microbes
and enzymes will ‘‘use up’’ much
of the available nitrogen.

We should try therefore to in-
crease the nitrogen reserves before
planting our cover crop and/or
replenish them in the following
spring with a high nitrogen fertil-
izer.

There are several types available:
sulphate of ammonia and urea are
quick releasing, sulphur-coated
urea and potassium nitrate are
slower, while blood meal and cot-
ton seed meal are good organic
sources.

There is a group of plants, the
legumes, which can supply their

own nitrogen. These nitrogen [ix-
ers, as they are called, have a sym-
biotic relationship with certain
bacteria that will ‘fix’? nitrogen

peas are a superlative cover crop,
rather that farmers will use some
of the crop as cattle feed. Not to
worry, the peas will fix nitrogen as

over the

garden gate
by Geoff Tobiasson

from the air to the roots of the
plant in a water-soluble form.

Examples of these plants that
could make good cover crops are
the vetches and clovers,

When these are incorporated in-
to fall seeding mixtures, extra
sources of nitrogen may not be re-
quired.

Remember that, in some areas,
clover can become a_ weed;
therefore vetch may be the better
choice,

Most seed companies will in-
clude Austrian winter peas in their
vetch mixtures, not because the

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well.

You can improve the nitrogen-
fixing characteristics of the
legumes by coating lightly damp-
ened seed with an ‘‘inoculant”’
prior to seeding,

An inoculant is simply a concen-

tration of the bacteria that work
with the legumes in the fixation
process,

To sow a crop that will produce
a green manure, be sure that the
soil is relatively weed-free,
cultivated and levelled.

Apply seed at the rates of 2.5
pounds per 1,000 square feet for
fall rye, one pound per 1,000 for
vetch, and most vetch/fall rye
mixes (based on 30 per cent vetch
and 70 per cent rye) at two pounds
per 1,000.

Til! and blend the crop well into
the soil prior to the crop going to
flower and turn once more prior to
spring planting. Add a quick
releasing nitrogen should the break
down into humus appear to be
slow, .

Now that wasn’t too disgusting,
was it? For those of you who are
disappointed, wait until future ar-
ticles in which we will discuss
choice bits such as de-limbing,
deadheading, and chainsaw mas-
sacres,

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