Free garden fertiliser – collecting seaweed

I am always on the lookout for things I can add to my soil to improve fertility, and I am especially interested when I can get these things for free. So some blustery weather on my weekly trip up to the coast at Aberystwyth meant conditions were perfect for a spot of seaweed collecting.

Seaweed is an excellent addition to soil fertility, it has a wide range of trace elements and minerals that can be really helpful as an all round soil tonic as well as being high in cellulose which breaks down really quickly. I use the seaweed I collect in a variety of ways, depending on the time of year it is collected. During the growing season I just slap it straight on the soil around the plants as a mulch. I find this method the best as the damp/slimy qualities of seaweed help to keep the soil underneath nice and moist, whilst the tops dry out in the sun and provide a sharp and crispy deterrent for the slugs and snails that plague us here in Wales. Other than using it as a mulch I add it directly to my compost heap to make sure my finished compost has as many nutrients as possible. I also use seaweed to brew a potent foliar feed that is great to spray on to young plants to give them the best start in life.

There are three beaches in Aberystwyth, I thought I would try my luck on the most exposed of the three, Tan-y-bwlch. As you can see it was a stunning day but the pickings were pretty slim on the seaweed front. I managed to collect a small amount of woody kelp and a large spider crab shell, whenever I go foraging on the shore I like to take a bag and collect any rubbish I find, unfortunately on this occasion there was more in the bag than in the seaweed tub.

Luckily on the next beach I tried there were plenty large clumps on the high tide mark as you can see from the photo. My bucket filled up quickly and it was back to the ranch.

As I have nothing to mulch at the moment the seaweed I collected was destined for the compost heap, however before I put it there I let the chickens have a go at it for a couple of days.

During the warmer months of the year the weed is full of little flies that hop along the beach and the chickens love rummaging through the pile looking for them, I think they may be eating some of the seaweed also.

After the chickens had had their go I just spread it out as a thin layer in my compost heap and by the time I come to turn it they will have completely broken down.

I have read a lot of advice about rinsing seaweed before applying it to the garden to wash off the salt but I have tried it both ways and I don’t think that there is any problem in applying the seaweed directly without rinsing. We lived for many years in a house within sight of the sea and had great results in our garden even though we were continually in the salty sea wind. For those of us lucky enough to live near the coast seaweed is a great, free and natural resource for our gardens.