Alison Odey

At certain times of the year my husband and I have been seen down the beach collecting bags of kelp and other seaweeds as it arrives on the beach after storms.
There are always frequent deposits at certain times of year, often around Easter, but not so much later in the year so we try and make the most of it.

We seem to spend much of our time explaining to curious beach walkers exactly what we are doing and why. Quite simple really, we are fertilizing our vegetable garden ready for winter planting. Any seaweed makes great fertilizer and it’s free!

There are several ways in which you can go about using the seaweed. We find the easiest is to lay it across the lawn for a day or so until slightly dry and then run the lawn mower over it. This mixes it up beautifully with the lawn clippings and it can then be dug straight into the garden.

Alternatively you can dig it directly into the soil without cutting it up first but it does take longer to break down this way and can become rather odorous if not dug in sufficiently.
A rotary hoe can make this job easier if you have a large garden.

If you have room for a compost bin or two then putting the seaweed directly into the bins along with your kitchen wastes will save the neighbours complaining about the smell.

However if you do not have a lawn or compost bins or if you cannot procure alot seaweed then another method is to soak what you have in buckets of water and once the liquid becomes nice and thick, dilute it and pour onto seedlings.
The buckets can then be refilled with water and the soaking process continued.

All seaweeds are very high in nutrients, especially minerals. This is important as our soils tend to be very deficient in minerals, especially here at the beach where the soil is very sandy. Collecting seaweeds is an effective and efficient way to make up this deficit. So whenever you see seaweed deposits down on the beach, collect it and have fun growing huge tasty vegetables.

I feel that many more people could make use of this resource and in doing so greatly improve their own and their family’s mineral intake as well as saving money.
For those that don’t do this then mineral supplementation is a must if you are going to keep good health.