Soil in need of some love? Sow green manure in your garden and you’ll improve your yields.

Just the other day, I discovered a half-empty bottle of Lucozade placed in the euphorbia trough by one of the scaffolders. A visiting architect joked, “Are you sure that’s Lucozade?” giving me a new perspective.

All this is to say, the garden is in disarray. But there’s a lot to be said for negligence; coming back from a trip, I spotted a sunflower sprouting in the back corner.

Now, however, some necessary firefighting is underway. As I’m expecting a baby, I’ve hired a professional gardener to remove troublesome weeds like green alkanet and young tree shoots from the neighbour’s tree, while leaving the good stuff. Then, in the open patches, I’ll be sowing cover crops.

Cover crops act like heroes when it comes to improving soil health.

A fellow garden writer has previously discussed cover crops, as they play a key role in crop rotation for edible gardens. But, the only things I’m picking from my garden right now are a few scrumped apples and some hardy herbs.

My ambitions for the garden are simple and steady – and enhancing soil health is my main priority. To update concerned readers, the scaffolding is for roof repairs, and the garden boundaries are still wobbly, but the neighbours are on board with replacing them.

Cover crops work wonders for soil health. Soil likes to be covered, which is why weeds appear. Yet by sowing fast-growing plants, you can suppress weeds, attract pollinators, shelter beneficial insects, and enrich the soil with nutrients.

Green manure plants may not look exciting – though some, like lupins ‘Blue Sonet’ and a flowering legume, have pretty flowers – but their purpose is to thrive rather than be admired. After they’ve grown, you can turn them under, cut them for compost, or leave them on the surface for worms to pull down. The real magic happens below the surface.

Now is the ideal time for sowing these cold-season plants. I’ve chosen rye grass, great for clay soil, a nitrogen-lifter, vetch, and field beans.

It feels rewarding in planting seeds that won’t stay forever – on the surface, anyway.