GREEN MANURING

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21280, 25 February 1939, Page 15

GREEN MANURING

BENEFICIAL TO NEW GARDEN A large proportion of those who are gradually converting hitherto uncultivated ground Into gardens find one of their most difficult problems in the question of how to Improve and nourish the soil. We have seen many gardens which are in the making, on what can only be termed starved, harsh, gravelly, or sandy soils, deficient in humus and all else that makes for good fertility. It is on such land that green manuring is calculated to be of great benefit.

For the enlightenment of novices who are unacquainted with technical terms such as "green manuring” we may explain that it is used in reference to a practice of sowing plots of vacant ground with some quick-grow-ing plant such as tares, common annual lupins, mustard, or rape, allowing a thick crop of seedlings to grow until they attain a height of six inches or thereabouts, then digging the whole mass of herbage into the ground, letting it lie and rot to form humus in the Wil. Act as Ground is Vacated Those who have taken crops of early aummer vegetables from portions of their ground will be well advised to take advantage of the opportunity to secure a green crop for this purpose of soil improvement before sowing or planting anything else. Ground which has been occupied by early peas, lettuces, or radishes, the earliest of new potatoes, or spring cabbages, can be dug to one spades depth, raked down, and sown thickly with any of the seeds already mentioned, which are purchasable at cheap prices for this particular purpose.

Germination in growth is rapid at this season of the year, and it will take but a few weeks to produce a dense growth of soft stems and foliage, which will add considerably to the bulk of vegetable matter in the soil when dug in. It is a very good plan, when growth reaches a height of two inches or so, to make a top-dressing mixture of sulphate of ammonia, sulphate of potash, and dry sifted soil, allowing four times the bulk of soil

to that of the chemicals. Mix thoroughly by turning over two or three times on a clean, hard floor and scatter evenly among the crop to form just a thin coating over the soil. These quickacting fertilisers encourage rapid development of substantial foliage, and that is exactly what is wanted for green manuring.

With plants like mustard or rape it is an important point that the digging in should take place before the stems become hard and woody, and the soil should be turned well over, so that the greenstuff is buried a few inches beneath the surface.

By sowing in February it is possible to dig a crop in, and allow sufficient time for decomposition, to enable planting of trees and shrubs, fruits, roses, etc., to proceed during the month of May, and the improvement will be very noticeable in the growth made by the new occupants of the ground next year.

Green manuring will also be of considerable benefit to very stiff clay soils, but the one difficulty here is to get the sowing done during summer when the harsh clods of soil refuse to crumble down to make a fine tilth. In extreme cases it may be well worth while to turn over the ground and break it as well as possible with a strong garden fork, and then obtain some loose lighter soil into which the seed can be mixed; then broadcast this, allowing soil and seed to fall into the chinks and crevices between the clods of clay. And such vigorous subjects as tares, mustard, or rape will manage to gain a foothold under these conditions, unless it so happens that immediately after germination severe drought sets in for a long spell.