Fertilize in autumn: three tips for strong vegetables next year
Created: 09/12/2022, 17:30
By: Ines Alms
Cover crops are easy and naturally give the soil back the nutrients it needs for healthy vegetable crops next year.
As the season progresses, the vegetables in the bed draw a lot of nutrients from the soil.
So that lettuce, potatoes & Co. can grow vigorously again next year, it makes sense to return the substances that have been removed to the earth.
This works very easily with green manure, where you sow plants in autumn that enrich the soil with nitrogen and other minerals.
It also has other benefits for the garden.
Fertilize in autumn: three tips for strong vegetables next year
The winter vetch (Zottelwicke) is sown in October at the latest for green manure.
© blickwinkel/Imago
Especially those who have grown heavy feeders such as zucchini, tomatoes or rhubarb or want to plant them again should think about green manure to give the vegetables a good start.
The right time for this is late summer or autumn after the harvest.
According to
Planetopia.de
, the advantages of green manure are not only the natural enrichment of the soil with humus, nutrients and trace elements such as nitrogen, but also a loosening of the soil.
This allows rainwater to run off better and waterlogging is avoided.
Tip 1: Spread the green manure correctly
As
My Beautiful Garden
explains, the procedure is as follows: Loosen up the bed with a rake and remove weeds.
Then spread the seed for the green manure evenly with a wide throw, rake in and water.
Tip 2: Suitable plants for green manure
The following fast-growing plants are well suited for sowing:
lupins
sweet peas
Lamb's lettuce
marigolds
Phacelia (bee pasture)
winter rye
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Tip 3: Bring the plants into the ground
As soon as the plants are about ten centimeters high after a few weeks, they are simply worked into the soil with the furrow.
If the plants are already larger, they must first be cut into small pieces.
Small creatures such as earthworms and microorganisms then break down the green into nutrients.
At the earliest three weeks later you can sow vegetables for the next year.
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In spring you can also prepare the soil for the next planting season with organic fertilizers such as compost or horn shavings.
