Soil in need of some love? Plant cover crops in your garden and you’ll reap the benefits.

I recently found a half-empty bottle of an energy drink 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 a bit of a mess. Sometimes neglect has its perks; after returning from holiday, 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 professional gardener to tackle troublesome weeds like green alkanet and robinia saplings from the neighbour’s tree, but keeping desirable plants. Next, in the open patches, I’ll be sowing green manure.

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

A fellow garden writer has written about cover crops, as they play a key role in seasonal planting for vegetable plots. However, the only things I’m picking from my garden right now are a few foraged apples and some hardy herbs.

My garden goals are simple and steady – and enhancing soil health is top of the list. To update concerned readers, the scaffolding is for roof repairs, and the fences are yet to be fixed, but the neighbours agree with replacing them.

Cover crops are like superheroes for your garden’s foundation. Bare soil invites weeds, which is why weeds appear. 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 certain lupin varieties and a flowering legume, have pretty flowers – but their purpose is to thrive rather than be admired. After they’ve grown, you can dig them into the soil, chop them for mulch, or let them decompose 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 beans that aerate soil.

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