Wednesday 13 November 2013

Seaweed Mulch/Conditioner

This post comes to you with the kind aid of Andrew and Maggie who took my wee camera with them on Saturday to gather seaweed for the lottie plots. I had a tummy bug and so couldn't go, well, anywhere, so it's thanks to them that this little autumn ritual didn't go undocumented.

Naturally it's easy for us and free too, to get our seaweed - we live on the coast. It's a really common thing to do here and it's eco friendly and everything :) As the venerable RHS says on it's website 'Seaweed contains several useful plant nutrients, including nitrogen, potassium, phosphate and magnesium', so it's also super excellent for soil improvement. We particularly like to gather it now dig some in and put on the beds as a mulch over winter (much better than a green manure if you ask me) and in the spring dig it in - it's just loads of goodness and aeration. The saltiness doesn't harm the soil at all and as we haven't had time to get and rot down any good horse manure in preparation for the winter, we are lucky we can do this instead.

So here are Andrew's photos - what a gorgeous day!











Namaste my lovelies; and thank you for all the comments after the last post!!

5 comments:

  1. Hope you shook off the tummy bug - such a pity you missed the trip. We use seaweed feed from a bottle as we are a bit too far from the cost to collect the real thing.

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  2. A great idea as a mulch. I put some leaf mold down today which I managed to get hold of last year. Hopefully the worms will pull it all down into the soil on the asparagus bed. I do hope you're feeling better now. Tummy bugs are horrid.

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  3. Is that the commons at Donaghadee? I wish you every goodness. I read your blog and always hope you are doing well.

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  4. Sue - i bet seaweed from a bottle is just as good and much less stiny to get hold off :) haha

    CJ - 2 glorious words in the one comment; worms and asparagus - oh how i wish we had lots on the plot!!
    Leaf mould is super (we're a bit crappy at collecting it, oops)

    Brian - Hello! that's Whitehead in my post, not Donaghadee (which also has an excellent lighthouse). Thank you so much for your kind words xxx

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  5. Hope you're feeling better. I can identify with you...only my "bug" wasn't stomach related, but definitely put me out of commission.

    The seaweed adventure looks like it was successful and done on a beautiful day. The lottie will appreciate Andrew and Maggie's work!

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