[canwickplot]

Hi folks, I'm rotating four beds: alliums, brassicas, potatoes and legumes. I'm following a four year plan in this order: potato and root > peas and beans > brassicas > alliums. Just wondered if anybody has any recommendations for winter green manures to fill in the gaps. For example, where might I best use Winter Tares or Hungarian Grazing Rye?

Thanks

Luke

[woodburner]

There's also field beans, or you could use broad beans. Grazing rye has to be dug in apparently so that takes it off my list, I'm not a digger I'd rather cut and leave as a mulch or put on the compost heap.
There's also fodder radish, and phacelia, ("if sown late"), not really sure how they should be treated though.

[canwickplot]

Thanks Woodburner. When you say you'd compost your green manures, what difference would they make to your compost compared to normal greens?

It's just that I wanted to do something with each of my beds this winter. I thought I'd follow the advice on this site and add lime to the bed where the potatoes are now; a bit more lime to where the beans are for the following years brassicas, but as for the other two beds (this year's brassica and Onion family) I'd like to offer them green manures. All of my beds got a dose of animal manure last winter and I thought I'd try something different this year.

[shaun]

grazing rye is a * to dig in by hand if sown heavily,mustard is ok but its a brassica.sow some over wintering broad beans (the only thing with these is you have to wait till around june before you crop them and dig them in)

[woodburner]

Thanks Woodburner. When you say you'd compost your green manures, what difference would they make to your compost compared to normal greens?

AFAIK no difference, but I simply don't have enough compost, as I can't get (uncontaminated) manure (other than what my chooks produce ), so I need all the organic matter I can get.
What the chooks produce gets mixed with a lot of straw so I need quite a bit of green stuff to balance it out, and whether I add green manure to a heap or use it as a direct mulch will depend on the state of my compost heaps.