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Just the other day, I discovered a half-empty bottle of Lucozade placed in the euphorbia trough by one of the scaffolders. A visiting architect joked, “Are you sure that’s Lucozade?” which made me see it differently.

In short, the garden is a bit of a mess. Sometimes neglect has its perks; coming back from a trip, I spotted a sunflower sprouting in the back corner.

Now, however, some necessary firefighting is underway. As I’m expecting a baby, I’ve enlisted a local gardener to tackle troublesome weeds like a prickly weed and robinia saplings from the neighbour’s tree, while leaving the good stuff. Next, in the open patches, I’ll be sowing cover crops.

Green manure are superheroes when it comes to boosting soil quality.

A fellow garden writer has written about green manure, as they play a key role in crop rotation for edible gardens. However, the only things I’m picking from my garden right now are a few foraged apples and some woody herbs.

My garden goals are modest and consistent – and enhancing soil health is top of the list. For those wondering, the scaffold is for roof repairs, and the fences are yet to be fixed, but the neighbours are on board with replacing them.

Cover crops work wonders for soil health. Soil likes to be covered, which is why unwanted plants pop up. Yet by sowing vigorous crops, you can suppress weeds, attract pollinators, shelter beneficial insects, and fix nitrogen.

Green manure plants aren’t always showy – though some, like lupins ‘Blue Sonet’ and a flowering legume, have pretty flowers – but their role is to thrive rather than be admired. After they’ve grown, you can dig them into the soil, cut them for compost, or leave them on the surface for worms to pull down. Their work happens underground.

Now is the ideal time for sowing these cold-season plants. I’ve chosen rye grass, great for clay soil, Italian ryegrass, vetch, and field beans.

There’s satisfaction in planting seeds knowing it’s temporary – on the surface, anyway.