Hi all,
I took your advice to grow a green manure on my new veg bed, the phaecelia has grown really well & has now completely covered the bed, it is about 1 foot tall & very sturdy. Should I think about cutting this down now, to rot down over Winter? or should I leave it until early Spring.
To tomatoada, I tried to send you a pm, but your inbox is full!
Adrian.
We've just heaped our manure over it, the frost will kill it off soon enough and any that climbs through will just be pulled up and composted :)
Thanks. Will try and sort it.
Phacelia is not a particularly sturdy plant and breaks off quite easily and does not grow back from the root. If you lleave a bit to flower then the bees will really be your friend and provide you with seeds for next year. You will find at the moment you can hoe it off quite easily and leave on the top to rot down.
If the weather is as cold as last year it will just die off anyway! :)
Mine is flowering again at the moment so I'm leaving it. It seeds itself all over the place but it's one of the easiest plants to pull up so I don't mind.
my onion bed was green manured with phacelia early in autumn and has been flowering since. i'm not sure whether to dig it in or not as i'm thinking that the bees might still be around. can anyone advise me?
You can leave it be now..good frost will finish it soon and once it is frosted and limp..you can then easily dig it in or leave it on surface..either way..worms will deal with it.. ;)
i find it v hard to dig in phacelia when you know it'll do the ground good, but if it's still flowering, i'm always hesitant about it as i'd rather have the bees benefiting from it still. the borage and the verbena bonanserensis (or whatever!) is going strong (well the former's looking v mildewy) and they still look nice.
are bees (or other insects) still around at this time of yr?
If the weather allow bees to fly..yes they will be around and use the last available nectar.. ;)
I have some selfsown phaecelia here and there on lottie for bees, so I don't feel bad when choping those for manure down ;)
Even after flowering..the spent stems still have some value left for your soil..so by all means, leave them if you enjoy the flowers..only thing is..by now they will have selfsown their seed again and next spring you will see carpet of new seedlings popping up..so you'll be facing the same problem again..to dig in or not to dig.. ;D
My bees are still flying, but not strongly. Don't be too concerned about them this time of year. Best thing would be to dig it in while it's still green, as you get more goodness from it that way.