Seaweed as Mulch/Fertilizer

You certainly can use seaweed almost directly on the garden, though I
prefer to let it dry out for a week or two, not because of any effect
or lack of it on the plants but because of the effect of the smell of
lots of fresh seaweed (a) on unsuspecting visitors, (b) on our ancient
crazed Labrador, to whom it's very nearly the ultimate turn-on - he
rips it off the beds and rolls in it ecstatically. (It needs an
x-rated adults-only list to deal with the ACTUAL ultimate turn-on. I
did say he was crazed...) I use it as much as a manure as a mulch, so
I rough-cut it while it's drying out, to encourage it to rot down - I
usually apply it in autumn and it's more or less absorbed by the time
the birds begin playing nesting-games in the spring with any loose
surfacing material.

(I should add that another possible disadvantage is that you tend to
get funny looks from semi-stranger passengers in your car, if, like
me, you spend a week or two of evenings around this time of year
running the car between house and beach with its boot stuffed with
loads of seaweed. When the seaweed is no longer there but the smell
very certainly still is.... Well, you see the problem.)


Tim Longville
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