Taking a year off

~Chameleon~

I've decided not to grow any outdoor veg this year, just a few tomatoes and peppers in the greenhouse. What sort of green manure can I sow in the fallow beds, and when? Or is there anything else I can do to put some goodness back into the soil whilst preventing the weeds taking over en masse?

Thanks :beer:

Lotus-eater

Any sort of green manure you like, depends what suits you, search for them and take your pick.
Think about some easy crop though, something like dwarf beans to dry would work well on a large scale, as easy as GM, indeed broad (field) beans are used as a GM.

PharmaAl

I used some really cheap Aduki beans I got from Home Bargains, something like 60p for a 500g bag!
Any bean will give a good covering, fix nitrogen and not cause any problems with millions of small seedlings.

Perpetual spinich is cheap too and produces a good covering of the soil then could be dug in to put in goodness

How can you resist a few beetroots and carrots scatterred about and left to grow? No trouble and you may get some produce too!

As for timing I guess the spinich will be ok in the next month but beans would have to wait until the soil warms and major frosts have disappeared.

Wookey

You could also sow out the entire area with peas and then fork them in, nice and high in nitrogen.

Rummer

Oh a whole garden of peas sounds fabulous!