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Seaweed
Jackers
Posts: 8
in Fruit & veg
Living on the coast I can easily collect seaweed - mainly brown.My father in law used to tell me that it was used a lot in the Channel Islands.How best can I make use of it, either as a plant food or soil conditioner ?
0
Posts
Can I just give a word of warning-collecting seaweed may be considerd a criminal offence it is taken without the permission of the land owner whoever that may be.
If you can get it and it's fine by all the various authorities, who I'm sure will have a view on the matter, then it is meant to be a very good fertilizer. I saw a programme a while back about the Lost Gardens of Heligan where they collected a truck full in the spring to dig in the veggie patch, fine for them as they have their own beach.
I imagine once rotted it would also make an excellent mulch.
HI jackwers we have on our allotments a chap who invented green fingers ,every year his is best and his secret is simply this, he told me to go to the beech preferably after bad weather,rough tides and collect seaweed,(big tip you must tie the bags very secure or you will get sand hoppers in your car and thats a very very big NO
sorry about that Jackwers only half the message came through,right, living on the coast removeing seaweed i quantitoies were talking about has never been a problem and the tide line decides who ownes what, in winter lots of seaweed is deposited and gardeners collect it, if its placed on top of the soil slugs tend not to go over it when its dry, our chap digs some in and from the £ shop he gets a pillow protector and fills it and places it in his water butts for food, he then fills a dustbin with water and does the same for food for summer,this needs diluting and is wonderfull, the rest he leaves in the bags untill summer and digs it in, he Never buys plant food
I think it needs to be made very clear that you must have permission from whoever owns the land before you take it. It may well be that some local authorities or land ownders allow it, whilst others don't.
There is a common misconception about the tide-line and what can be removed-I will repeat- it may be considered a criminal offence.
Hi again Jack,i have actually spoken to our local council about collecting seaweed and they we cannot see a reason why a council would mind gardeners collecting sea weed,beachcombers are accepted as is people who collect flotsam and jetsam,also shell collectors and so forth,the tide lines used are high mean ,so between the high tide line and the sea shore and sea bed that is almost always owned by the crown ,high water lines are the accepted point of change if any, and not the start of buildings or roads or vegetation and are the legal acceptance in almost all cases,charges made on beeches ie car parks etc are after the high tide line therefore legal, so seaweed is best and free
Alan4711
Pretty much all land is owned by someone, it doesn't matter where the boundaries are, you must have permission from the owner to take anything from it.
If your local authority doesn't mind then that's great.
I understand these regulations are in place to stop commercial organisations coming along in a truck collecting stuff and selling it on for profit
Now the occasional gardener might get the blind eye treatment but imagine if it happened en-masse
A few years back when pebble gardens were the rage, people were taking them from beaches,driftwood as well- as has been said it does belong to someone.
seeing as seaweed doesnt deposit passed the high water line no one can own it, as its between the high water line and the seabed permission cannot be granted by anyone eccept by the crown and i dont think they will mind do you