1stop Organic Gardening

Improve Your Organic Soil With Legumes

There are quite a few ways I go about improving the soil of my organic garden. Growing legumes happens to be one of the easiest ways to add some nitrogen to the garden, while also getting to eat some of the harvest.

I’ve just pulled up my latest lot of snow peas and took a photo of the roots to show you what I mean.

See the little whiteish “growths” on this healthy pea plant root system? They are called nodules. Legumes (peas, beans, some acacias, peanuts etc.) have the amazing ability to take nitrogen from the air and transport it down to their roots.

When you pull up the spent plants most of the nodules stay in the soil and go on to feed your next crop. Many organic gardeners grow legumes as a green manure crop. They grow the legume until it is flowering and then plough the entire plant into the soil. This breaks down and adds valuable organic matter back into the soil - along with the added nitrogen.

Growing legumes is part of my organic gardening system, which keeps my soil, and the rest of my garden, healthy and enriched.

Happy Organic Gardening, Healthy Living…