Crops such as vetch, field beans and forage peas can improve soil if you use them as a mulch
I am locked in an eternal battle with my soil. Now, I adore the earth and believe it to be miraculous in its life-giving properties. But I’d be lying if I said I don’t sometimes (or often) feel deeply frustrated with the intransigence of the heavy clay I’m working with in my veg patch. Clay soil is especially miraculous in how nutrient dense it is. Yet, those nutrients are, somewhat ironically, more challenging for gardeners to access for their crops than with other soil types.
The answer – as with almost all problems faced in a chemical free, mostly no-dig garden – is adding a mulch of organic matter (either compost or well-rotted manure) that can be incorporated into the earth by insects, who will improve its texture in the process. And yet, this trusty approach is tricky in my veg patch as we live on a hill and there is about a metre’s difference between one side of the site and the other. This situation (plus the stubbornness of soil made sodden by a wet winter and then solid by a heatwave summer) has meant the layers of compost I laid over the last year have been either washed away or not particularly well incorporated into the deeper soil.
