Want to give your soil some TLC? Sow cover crops in your garden and you’ll enrich your soil.

Just the other day, I discovered a partially finished bottle of Lucozade 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.

This week, though, some necessary firefighting is underway. As I’m expecting a baby, I’ve hired a professional gardener to remove troublesome weeds like green alkanet and robinia saplings from the neighbour’s tree, but keeping desirable plants. Then, 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 previously discussed green manure, as they play a key role in seasonal planting for vegetable plots. But, the only things I’m picking from my garden right now are a few foraged apples and some hardy herbs.

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

Cover crops work wonders for your garden’s foundation. Soil likes to be covered, which is why unwanted plants pop up. Yet by sowing fast-growing plants, you can suppress weeds, attract pollinators, host pest-eating creatures, and enrich the soil with nutrients.

Green manure plants may not look exciting – though some, like certain lupin varieties and bird’s foot trefoil, have pretty flowers – but their purpose is to thrive 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. The real magic happens underground.

Now is the ideal time for sowing these overwintering crops. My selection includes forage rye, great for clay soil, Italian ryegrass, a weed-suppressor, and beans that aerate soil.

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