Green Manure Update

Only about half of my winter field beans have germinated, although some have germinated some distance away from where I actually scattered them! I suspect that birds (or as my neighbour John pointed out, mice) have stolen some of the beans. Either that or I was not very careful when I planted them; both are a possibility. They may also have just decided not to germinate due to conditions not being quite right.


I expected them to have grown a bit bigger by now and to have blocked out the weeds, but the weeds are much more numerous than the green manure. I think I planted them rather too late in the season to be truly effective. They were planted at the end of a very wet summer/autumn, and really only just before winter set in, so I might try again earlier in future, and I might protect them with some mesh whilst they germinate. I know that birds like to pull up seedlings, but that was a risk I was prepared to take this year as they weren't an important crop to me, just an experiment.