Bring the Sea to the Land

At the Real Food Garden we're mad about producing food that's high in nutrients and bursting with flavour. For that we need soil that is oozing with good health and so we love seaweed. Over that last month we've been applying seaweed joyously to our brassica beds ready for the first plantings in a couple of months.

You may be familiar with the nigh nutrient level of seaweed; it contains 10 times the nutrients than land-based plants. You may also be aware that it has high level of important trace elements, over 60 different types, these are essential for plant growth. You may also know that coastal communities have used this slippery stuff for hundreds of years to sustain their agriculture.

These are some reasons why we love seaweed but there's more! I've been getting nerdy understanding why seaweed is so beneficial and the results have brought us to slap it on in generous helpings to the brassicas. The cabbages, kales, purple sprouting and swedes of the brassica family find it more difficult to take up nutrients from the soil as they don't form mycorrhizal associations (that’s beneficial connections with fungi) so improving availability of nutrients in soil for brassicas is important.

Seaweed is especially good for this due to its unique properties. Seaweed is able to increase microbial activity in the soil with the effect of unlocking the unavailable nutrients, making it available for our crops. That’s great on our clay soil which holds nutrients well. If this wasn't enough, seaweed also contains plant growth hormones, cytokinins which work to make the root system stronger and plants bigger, with more chlorophyll. So expect giant cabbages folks!

We've been collecting our seaweed only from the huge piles which have been washed up recently by storms. Seaweed is essential for beach life to so we only take a little at a time and never more than a fraction of what’s there. But thanks to the bounty of the natural world we hope our brassicas will be healthy, gorgeous looking plants full of extra nutrients and flavour.