Mulching space where crops have been harvested and cleared. Sowing green manure.
As I remove plants following a harvest, for example, of broad beans and peas, I am left with very good bare soil. Nature does not do bare soil, so it is good to cover it with a mulch of grass clippings or even cardboard.
Another good option is to sow a suitable green manure, which really just means a quick growing crop that is to be dug in and added to the organic matter and improve the soil structure for another crop to be sown either in the autumn or in the following spring. One thing I’ve discovered is that soil likes to have something growing in it as the roots of any plant, even what we call weeds, encourage soil microbes which would not be encouraged if there were no plant roots.
