Does your garden soil need a boost? Plant cover crops in your garden and you’ll enrich your soil.

I recently found a partially finished bottle of Lucozade left behind 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. Sometimes neglect has its perks; coming back from a trip, I spotted a sunflower growing in the back corner.

Now, however, some necessary firefighting is underway. As I’m expecting a baby, I’ve hired a local gardener to remove invasive plants like a prickly weed and young tree shoots from the neighbour’s tree, but keeping desirable plants. Next, in the newly cleared patches, I’ll be sowing cover crops.

Cover crops act like heroes when it comes to boosting soil quality.

A fellow garden writer has previously discussed green manure, as they are essential in seasonal planting for edible gardens. However, the only things I’m harvesting from my garden right now are a few foraged apples and some woody herbs.

My ambitions for the garden are modest and consistent – and enhancing soil health is my main priority. For those wondering, the scaffolding is for roof repairs, and the fences are yet to be fixed, but the neighbours agree with replacing them.

Cover crops work wonders for soil health. Bare soil invites weeds, which is why unwanted plants pop up. But by sowing fast-growing plants, you can control weeds, attract pollinators, shelter beneficial insects, and fix nitrogen.

Cover crops aren’t always showy – though some, like lupins ‘Blue Sonet’ and a flowering legume, have pretty flowers – but their role is to grow vigorously rather than look decorative. Once established, you can turn them under, chop them for mulch, or leave them on the surface for earthworms to incorporate. Their work happens below the surface.

Now is the ideal time for sowing these cold-season plants. My selection includes forage rye, which breaks up heavy earth, Italian ryegrass, vetch, and beans that aerate soil.

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