Saturday, Seaweed and a Flurry of Snow

These past few days here in the North-East of Scotland we've had a bit of weather reversal with our English neighbours. Usually we are colder but while England has been coping with freezing rain and records lows we've had some balmy days. Is 11ºC (52ºF) balmy? From where you're sitting maybe not, but for us in February it's almost enough to tempt you to indulge in a frenzy of planting. Bad mistake, which I resisted because I am surrounded by old hands who have seen more snow falls in April than snowdrops in January and who are guided by dates not ephemeral warm spells. If global warming is kicking in these guys will need 20 years solid data before they'll plant their early tatties before the end of March.

So instead of premature outdoor planting I took advantage of a calm day, a warm sun and a tide which had left an offering on the strandline to collect some seaweed. The shore is a five minute stroll with the wheelbarrow.

You can see the line of seaweed deposited by the tide. Note the prolific growth nearer the low tide mark but this is growing, anchored seaweed which I wouldn't take. In fact I think it might be illegal. Few moral dilemmas though when I could have filled my barrow many more time from the strandline but I am reminded by Gardenzine that '. . . seaweed that is left behind when the tide retreats will be returned to the sea at high tide. In the meantime, it is providing shelter for hundreds of creatures and protecting them from dehydration until the sea picks them up again. Pick seaweed that has been pushed beyond the reach of the tide or has been washed up by storms and wash the seaweed in the sea if you can to allow any sea-dwelling creatures sheltering there to escape.'

The view is looking back upstream to the harbour but it's also the outfall for the River Dee and so although this is tidal there's a huge volume of fresh water passing this point too. That makes me think that the seaweed I am gathering may be lower in salt. Advice seems to vary about whether seaweed needs to be 'washed' before using. I'll take a chance with my composted, 'lo-salt' harvest which I'm using here to top off a compost bin.

I don't have to be convinced of the value of seaweed but I was intrigued to read, again in Gardenzine, that some bloggers complain that the flavour of Ayshire's famous potatoes has declined since a lack of available labour to cart seaweed on to the potato fields has meant that this traditional fertiliser is no longer used. More pejoratively, it was seaweed that underpinned so-called 'lazy-bed' agriculture in Ireland and the West coast of Scotland where the low fertility of peat-based soils were supplemented by the nutrients supplied by spread seaweed. The term lazy-bed seems unfair both to the crofters and the seaweed as it was probably the most productive solution to a poor soil and an easily available resource. And I know that even with my relative proximity to the source, carting seaweed from the shore to the land is not for the lazy.

With the harvest put to bed in the compost heap and given its covering blanket the sun disappeared in a darkening sky and a few snow flakes flurried in a bitter wind. The seasonal temperatures had returned. The tools went back in the shed and I was pleased to have kept the seeds in their packets for the time being.