Yellow Melilot 250 m² - Green Manure

The Yellow Sweet Clover (Melilotus officinalis) is a biennial legume, used as green manure and known for its medicinal properties against vein problems. It is a herbaceous plant that attracts bees, offering small yellow flowers in clusters during the summer. This green manure will help to loosen the soil, limit weed growth, and combat soil leaching or rain compaction. Like all legumes, sweet clover fixes atmospheric nitrogen and enriches the soil if cut and left in place as mulch. Sowing from May to September.

The Yellow Sweet Clover belongs to the Fabaceae family (formerly legumes). It is frequently found in meadows or along roadsides and is used as green manure in vegetable gardens. It is a plant with upright stems and leaves with 3 leaflets. Sweet clover blooms throughout the summer, with numerous small yellow flowers in elongated clusters that transform into brown ovoid pods. Its root system is powerful. This plant contains flavonoids and coumarin derivatives, used in herbal medicine to treat vein disorders.

Widely used in organically cultivated gardens, green manures like sweet clover have numerous advantages. They nourish and improve the soil by providing various nutrients and stimulating soil microbial life. Their roots will loosen, break up, and aerate the soil. Additionally, the presence of a vegetative cover protects the soil from leaching (nutrient loss in sandy soil), rain compaction (formation of a crust in loamy soil), and erosion (caused by runoff in steep terrain during heavy rain). This vegetative cover also helps limit weed growth by preventing the growth of unwanted grasses. Finally, green manures are often attractive to bees and help attract pollinators.

Green manures are sown on uncultivated plots or intercalary plots, between rows of vegetables. They are either naturally destroyed by frost or cut before seed formation. Once destroyed, they can be left in place as mulch, crushed and incorporated into the top layers of the soil, or collected and added to compost.