{"id":405,"date":"2011-07-22T13:21:00","date_gmt":"2011-07-22T12:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gsu.eventmedialabs.com\/?p=405"},"modified":"2015-07-19T22:57:03","modified_gmt":"2015-07-19T21:57:03","slug":"phacelia-green-manure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greensideup.ie\/phacelia-green-manure\/","title":{"rendered":"Phacelia – not just a green manure"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>I adore Phacelia. It’s pretty, delicate flower attracts hoverflies as well as many types of bees into our garden.\u00a0 It’s easy to grow, hardy\u00a0and it self seeds. Phacelia is a green manure<\/a> that can be sown into vegetable gardens when they would otherwise be left empty.<\/p>\n <\/a>It improves the soil if the plants are dug in or cut before they flower and left on the top of the soil\u00a0to break down.<\/p>\n I’ve never managed to do this. The promise of a garden full of the\u00a0colourful spikey\u00a0flowers is\u00a0too great.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When the flowers\u00a0come to an end the seeds start to form, uncurling in a way that resembles barley.<\/p>\n