Hello everyone; I still utilise lots of green manure, I have just about finished covering all my bare ground with sowings of lucerne, grazing rye, phacelia and field beans. I currently have 2 allotment plots.
Just to recap on lucerne; I try to sow it by the end of August because germination gets tricky later on and small seedlings can get hit by frost/cold /damp conditions. I sow in rows to make it easier to manage and dig it out by chopping into the base of the row from both sides to remove all the top plus about 15cm of root, regrowth is then minimal. It is hard graft and definitely not everybodys cup of tea. I sow 20 to 40 sq mtrs per year and it grows all the next summer to be removed the following spring for a veg crop. The soil on our new allotment site was very poor and some veg types did not produce very well at all. For this reason I have been leaving my lucerne in for an extra year for it to bulk up and make more root. In my opinion the main benefit of lucerne is what the roots get upto below ground level and I will leave you to speculate on that. I hope this information is useful
Pete