Sunday 2 November 2008

green manure: mustard

I've extolled the virtues of green manures many times in the past.

Here, we have mustard doing really well. Mustard fits into the organic rotation as a member of the brassica family. Next year this ground will be planted with calabrese and broccoli. The mustard will either be dug under or composted in the spring.
The bushy, established plants were planted after peas were cleared from the ground. The recently germinated plants were sowed later - after sweetcorn had been cleared.
The established plants were sown in my usual diagonal drills, but have so much growth that you can't see the pattern any more.

Beyond the mustard is the bed that will be planted with legumes next year. The green manure is the ever-reliable field bean.

2 comments:

Lisa said...

Your overwintering green manures look great! What's the principle behind using a green manure in the same family as the following crop, by the way? Here, we tend to use more legumes and grains as cover crops in the winter, but I'm not all that familiar with the details.

We eat our mustard, kale, and collards in the fall and winter here in the SE (traditionally overcooked with pork or bacon, but I stir-fry them with garlic and olive oil -- yum).

Sinfonian said...

What variety of mustard green do you plant? I'm looking for one that'll grow in my area, and your climate and mine are very similar.

Your garden looks awesome! Well done!