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GB · Joined: 12 Feb 2007 Posts: 317 Location: Ireland

I plan to spend lots of time at the beach with the kids and also start a really big veg patch this year and thought of combining them by collecting sea weed for compost/lazy beds but hubby thought that beach rights might belong to some one. The sea weed I am talking about is the line of flotsam that collects at the tide line, not the stuff growing on the rocks, but I dont want to get us all in trouble with some farmer for pinching his mulch or something.
is it salvage for all or do I have to get someones permission. I have always worked on the basis of first come but then I havnt gone to the beach with a trailer and wheelbarrow before Laughing

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gai · Joined: 14 Dec 2006 Posts: 83 Location: Co Donegal

I've been doing this for a few years now and haven't had any problems. I'm not sure about if it's legal or not but I can't see the harm in it. I take a few feed bags with me every time we go to visit OH's uncle who lives a mile from the strand. I fill the bags with the stuff washed up on the beach and if it's autumn I spread it with manure on top of cleared beds. It breaks down over winter and gets dug in come spring. There's definitely a reduction in slug numbers in these beds for the next year. All other times of the year the bags get tipped onto the compost heap. Sometimes a few handfuls get thrown into the big blue barrel of fermenting plant food. I've seen it put through a shredder and used as a mulch but haven't tried it myself. I've also seen farmers just spread it out on the fields in autumn and it "melts" into the ground over winter.
Seaweed - miracle food for the garden.

wayland · Joined: 14 Dec 2006 Posts: 1163 Location: Campile. Wexford

Interesting topic this. I never gave it a thought that someone may have rights to sea weed. The times I have spent beach casting in Ireland I have been the only one on the beach and the tideline is thick with weed. The next time I am there Ill take some furt bags with me and skank some Very Happy

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wayoutwest · Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 184 Location: west clare

I've been using this for 7 years and no one's stopped me. One older local guy here told me how they used to fight over the kelp when it was 'in'. Now it's not so popular. I can't think how anyone would deny you the stuff brought in with the tide.
It is great for slugs, and we've used it as a mulch for growing all brassicas here when the slugs were a real problem. it also goes into the compost heap, and in the autumn like Gai does, and we soak it in water and Personally Installed Seaweed Starter, in a barrell for 6 weeks, for plant feed. (this last one has been there 8 months, as I forgot about it... should be great for the corguettes!)

You can't take stones, sand, or supposedly drift wood (ahem, we all do) but I can't see a problem with seaweed as it's a food, and has been used as one for centuries. Some of the islands only got soil by dragging up seaweed onto the rock and letting it rot down.
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GB · Joined: 12 Feb 2007 Posts: 317 Location: Ireland

Thats about what I thought but I just wanted to make hubby feel more comfortable about my beach grubbing.
Thanks Very Happy

Oh, and have any of you tried making a lazzy bed for potatoes? Any tips
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wayoutwest · Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 184 Location: west clare

what do you mean by a lazy bed?

(I've used the lasagne method for beans, layers of seaweed, maure, home compost, paper, all the way up and beans at soil level, and then mulched layers on top. that was incredible!)
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GB · Joined: 12 Feb 2007 Posts: 317 Location: Ireland

place a deep mound the length you want the bed to be and simply cut the turf from either side of the bed and flip it up and over the sea weed. shovel soil from either side to finish shaping the bed and plant spuds into sea weed. The sod breaks down and the bed can be used as is for several growing seasons. When finished, just open and repack with sea weed. Sounded interesting as I am starting from scratch with what use to be a cow pasture.
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wayoutwest · Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 184 Location: west clare

ah, yes, I know what you mean now. I tried that (in a field that became a garden) and the grass just grew straight up, turning on itself. I wondered if people who did it had dome so from a 'garden' type grass, rather than determined field grasses.

maybe I didn't put enough soil on top (used about 6 inches.)

in honesty, although I would be shouted down from all sides for this, I have started three vegetable gardens in fields, and every time I have used weedkiller once, and then dug over, and from then on weeded by hand. I tried everything, not to use the chemicals, but in the end this seemed the only viable option for creating the beds on a large scale, in a few months. if you want to start small, then dig and weed as you go, and create beds one at a time. that's probably what we'd do if we owned the land. (we rent.) but if you decide to use weedkiller, don't beat yourself up for it - I felt much better after bob flowerdew, the organic champion veg grower, advised someone to do it just the once, to get a hold on an ex-field.
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GB · Joined: 12 Feb 2007 Posts: 317 Location: Ireland

I have only done this on a small scale but it worked a treat and I plan to do it this time: strip off the turf. I can move it to the front of the house which needs it anyway and in the process remove all the weed seeds that lie dormant in the grass as well as the grass itself. Then dig over and manure. Hay presto, weeding free garden. As I said, the largest one I have done was about 30 ft by 60 but it was magic Cool

all I had to worry about were anual weeds blown in from the rest of the garden.
but if all else fails, grass killer it is because grass is a killer in a garden
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wayland · Joined: 14 Dec 2006 Posts: 1163 Location: Campile. Wexford

Turning the turf and sea weed into a mound sounds a good idea for tate production, untill you find that the grass is largly made up of Twitch/couch or whatever you call it. These roots will grow right through your tates. The job of removing these by hand is a tough one and so I would spray with roundup first. Not organic I know but it leaves no residue in the soil which is fine by me. Wink

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