Be full of beans and you will enjoy a winter of real content

FEELING guilty about the amount of fertiliser you put into your garden or allotment plot?

Is all this talk about "organic" making you want to do something about it?

Worried about leaving your soil open to the elements all winter and the rain pounding your good tilth into a hard pan?

Don't want to put black plastic or carpets down and harbour New Zealand flatworm and all the other possible nasties, not to mention dyes leaching out of the carpet and poisoning your soil?

If so, now is the time to plant winter green manures.

Three years ago, after harvesting my spuds and onions - I rotate them together over four years, but alternate their position at each four-yearly cycle. This eight-year cycle gets rid of onion rot and potato eelworm - I planted the whole bed with field beans in October.

I had never tried it before.

The seeds soon germinated, even though the temperatures were low. By December they were through and standing about 10cm tall with big leaves cushioning the rainfall.

They were very hardy, taking all the snow, freezing temperatures and wind easily, and as spring came in, they soon started growing well.

I always plant roots after spuds, so the green tops of the field beans were chopped off at ground level and put on the compost heap.

I raked in some lime and planted parsnip and swedes. I then chopped some more down and planted successive crops of turnips, beetroot and spinach.

The soil was in prime condition, light and crumbly. The field bean roots were left in the soil as they store nitrogen nodules and the produce was just as good as if I had used tonnes of artificial fertiliser.

I have used field beans ever since and have just finished planting this year's bed.

Pleased with my first success at using green manures, two years ago I planted grazing rye grass on the bed where the peas and beans had grown. The seeds were sown as soon as I had removed the old peas and beans.

Grazing rye is also very hardy. It draws up nutrients and improves soil structure and it will also cover the bed and protect it from the elements, just as field beans do.

You dig the whole lot in at spring time, but do not let it go to flower.

I then limed the bed as normal for brassicas, firmed the soil down and planted my cabbage and sprouts.

The yield was better than previous years and the plants were extremely healthy.

The digging in was hard work, but well worth it.

If I have any field bean or grazing rye seeds left they get planted in any empty space.

The plot looks good, weeds are suppressed and your most precious asset, the soil, is getting TLC all through winter.

What more could you ask for?

Peter Wright MBE is acting chairman of Fedaga (The Federation of Edinburgh and District Allotments and Gardens Associations). He is a plot holder at the Lady Road Allotments. For more information about Fedaga, visit www.fedaga.org.uk.