How Does Your Garden Grow?

My Fellow Bahamians, many of us take pride in our gardens, whether we have acres of greenery or a small planter of herbs used for cooking your favourite recipes. Well here in the Bahamas especially, we have easy access for ways of giving our gardens the best fertilizer on earth- and it comes from the ocean every day-for FREE.

That's right; Seaweed!

Seaweed, which originates from the ocean's garden, is one of the best materials for an earth garden. For one thing, kelp helps stimulates soil bacteria. This, in turn increases fertility of the soil by humus formation (which feeds on the bacteria), aeration and moisture retention. Let's look at some other ways that kelp helps:

• Seed germination is improved
• Fruits and vegetable have a greater nutritional value
• Plants develop more extensive root systems, which means healthier foliage, flowers and fruit
• Plants have a greater resistance to nematodes, disease and pests.

How to apply seaweed

You can apply fresh kelp directly to the soil (some people suggest rinsing it to remove the sea salt, but for the past 20 years I've never found it necessary). Arrange it as a 2 to 4-inch mulch layer or include it in the compost pile. Seaweed decays quickly because it contains little cellulose. What's nice too, is that you don't introduce weed seeds with seaweed mulch.
You can also apply kelp as a liquid fertilizer at the base of plants to reach the root zone, add it to a drip irrigation system or as a dilute foliar spray. In recent tests at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, soil sprayed with a seaweed solution had 67 percent to 175 percent more roots than untreated soil.

To make your own liquid kelp, add a couple handfuls of seaweed to a 5-gallon bucket of water. Stir the concoction daily for a few days, then strain and dilute it using the ratio of 1 part kelp liquid to 2 parts water.

Any sprayer or mister will work, from hand-trigger units to backpack models. The best times to spray are early morning and early evening, when the liquids will be absorbed most quickly. Spray the tops and bottoms of leaves until the liquid drips off the leaves.

As people become more sensitive to environmental issues, the need for organic gardening methods plays a critical role in our health and the health of the planet. The use of kelp--a natural, renewable gift from the ocean--helps us with our efforts in the garden. 

Happy gardening my friends!

Love,

Freddy.

"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children".

-Native American Proverb.