What do you plant when you’ve got to the end of your sowing list? Mung beans are a good way to fill a spare bed.
I prepared a bed down at the main vegetable garden but didn’t have anything that urgently needed sowing. So on a whim I thought that mung beans out of the pantry might be a good summer crop.
Three weeks after sowing they had made an excellent cover crop, keeping weeds down by shading them out, while they condition the soil. As they are legumes they can also increase the nitrogen content of the soil.
The seeds were just an old packet of beans, from India and bought from a cheap local shop. They had started growing beetles in the sealed pack so they were spoiled for eating. They were super quick; sprouting in a day and never looking back. I’m getting through the rest of them by sprouting them for the chickens.
Some say you should dig in cover crops, which adds both organic matter and the nutrients bound up in the plants, but I don’t have the heart for that. Instead I tend to grow them through to beans which I can pick for sprouts in the kitchen or feed to the chickens.