Does your garden soil need a boost? Sow green manure in your garden and you’ll reap the benefits.

Just the other day, I discovered a partially finished bottle of Lucozade placed in the euphorbia trough by one of the scaffolders. An architect friend commented, “Are you sure that’s Lucozade?” which made me see it differently.

In short, the garden is a bit of a mess. Sometimes neglect has its perks; 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 enlisted a local gardener to tackle invasive plants like a prickly weed and robinia saplings from the neighbour’s tree, while leaving the good stuff. Next, in the newly cleared patches, I’ll be sowing green manure.

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

My gardening friend Claire has written about green manure, as they are essential in crop rotation for vegetable plots. However, the only things I’m picking from my garden right now are a few scrumped apples and some hardy herbs.

My garden goals are simple and steady – and improving the soil is my main priority. To update concerned readers, the scaffolding is for roof repairs, and the garden boundaries are yet to be fixed, but the neighbours agree with replacing them.

Cover crops work wonders for your garden’s foundation. Soil likes to be covered, which is why unwanted plants pop up. But by sowing fast-growing plants, you can control weeds, bring in bees, host pest-eating creatures, and fix nitrogen.

Green manure plants may not look exciting – though some, like certain lupin varieties and a flowering legume, have lovely blooms – but their role is to grow vigorously rather than look decorative. After they’ve grown, you can turn them under, chop them for mulch, or leave them on the surface for worms to pull down. Their work happens below the surface.

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

It feels rewarding in sowing something knowing it’s temporary – on the surface, anyway.