When we go away camping to Noosa North Shore we always take a big bag of wild bird seed to feed the little Pacific Black Ducks and the Rainbow Lorikeets. This time, however, we didn't see one single Rainbow Lorikeet, which was disappointing as we love to see and hear these larrikins of the bird world. For the Rainbow Lorikeets we scatter some seed on a tray and then drizzle with a little honey, they just go mad for it.
This photo was taken in February this year
We did however have a couple of Pacific Black Ducks hanging around camp most days, we gave them a bowl of fresh water and some seed every day. I think they especially appreciated the fresh water.
So with the lack of bird life this time we bought home over half a big bag of wild bird seed, what were we going to do with all this seed? Then I had an idea on the way home about using this seed to grow a green manure for the new raised garden beds. I have written about our struggles getting the soil rich enough to grow anything in, here and here.
So I googled "Using bird seed as a green manure" and sure enough it is an actual thing. It is far cheaper to buy a bag of bird seed than individual packets of seed for this purpose. The seeds included in this particular brand of wild bird seed are as follows-
Okay, I know the currants and vegetable oil won't help this situation but as they are in a small quantity I guess they won't hurt. So, on Sunday morning I set about sowing this seed into our raised garden beds, here's what I did-
Moved the mulch to expose half the garden bed then tilled the soil with a rake
Scattered over a couple of handfuls of seed, raked them in lightly, then moved the mulch back and repeated the process on the other half of the garden bed. Once all the garden beds were sown, I gave them a really good water in.
Once the green manure crop is knee high we will slash it and dig it deeply into the soil, along with the mulch and let it rot down well. This may take a while so we have decided to hold off planting any vegetable or herb seed/seedlings until the very end of summer/start of autumn. I really want amazing rich soil to grow vegetables and herbs in, so even though I will need to be patient, I am hoping it will be worth it in the long run.
Have you ever grown a green manure to improve your soil? What seed did you use? And how else do you improve your soil?
Have a lovely day,
💗Fi
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