A TikTok video shows how seaweed can help your garden prosper in ways you never imagined.
The scoop
Amy from In The Cottage Garden (@inthecottagegarden) put up a post to explain why seaweed is so helpful and show multiple ways your garden can benefit from its seemingly magical properties.
@inthecottagegarden How I use seaweed in the garden 👩🌾 There are so many ways you can use seaweed to add extra fertility and minerals to your soil, and it even repels slugs! Here's how to make your own liquid seaweed feed, and a couple of other ways to use it too 💚
♬ original sound - In The Cottage Garden 🌻
The video opens with Amy collecting seaweed in a basket at the waterside.
"It contains up to 10 times the minerals of land-based plants," the TikToker said. "And there's even evidence to suggest it's been used as a fertilizer for thousands of years."
Pro tips: Only collect the seaweed that has washed up, never pull it from the rocks, harvest responsibly, and only take what you need.
Once the seaweed is collected, Amy rinses it with fresh water to get rid of the excess salt. From there, you can put seaweed directly into garden beds to provide the soil with essential nutrients and minerals.
"... And it even repels slugs!" the caption promised.
As advertised, Amy used the seaweed as magic mulch, laying it on top of the soil around plants that draw in slugs. Slugs are deterred by the salt.
You can also make liquid feed. Just add seaweed into a bucket, weigh it down with a heavy rock, and fill it with water. Wait a few weeks, and you'll have a potent fertilizer that can be diluted to water the plants.
How it's helping
Full of protein, fiber, and antioxidants, seaweed is packed with nutrients, slowly becoming a Western nutritional staple and superfood that can reduce the risk of heart disease, according to the BBC.
What's brilliant about seaweed is that it can be used for a plethora of things. For example, the startup Carbonwave has turned massive amounts of seaweed washing ashore into profit, using it to create fertilizers and cosmetic emulsifiers, among other things.
Using seaweed in your garden helps enrich the soil, maintain moisture, and keep pests away without fertilizers and pesticides that contain harmful chemicals. Keeping these toxins out of our gardens and lawns prevents them from washing into our waterways.
Gardening and growing your own food helps you save money, eat healthier, and reduce waste by decreasing the demand for mass-produced, globally shipped, store-bought items. Less travel, time in storage, and packaging means less stress on our Earth. It usually also tastes better, which is incentive enough.
The physical activity and extra fiber gives those who garden an edge in their overall health. Gardeners are also less stressed and happier. Yes, please.
What everyone's saying
In The Cottage Garden's seaweed tips were greeted with appreciation and intrigue.
"My father used to collect seaweed for garden & fields as a boy," one TikToker commented.
"I've been collecting it for years and all of my plants look amazing!" another exclaimed.
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