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Photo: Chris Evans
Work with Nature - Green Manures
When we work with nature we take advantage of what she is already doing to achieve our own objectives. Here we see another of her busy pollinators performing vital work. The flowers are those of Phaecelia, a particularly useful plant to have in your garden.
Whilst the 'easy chemical-based fertiliser' approach may produce results, they have many hidden costs in the environment. Phacelia is one of nature's accumulators; what we call a green manure. We can plant species like Phaecelia in our gardens & allow them to do the work of accumulating nutrients for us; in this case it also attracts beneficial bees & hoverflies. Then we can simply dig them in or mulch over them to enrich the soil.