The Packed Clay Garden is Loosened by Kelp

Heavy clay soils present an enigma in the vegetable garden. Clay usually carries a negative electrical charge that turns the soil particles to microscopic magnets, and imprisons the minerals that plants need. Each clay particle magnet clings tightly, one to another, allowing little root penetration. These two factors create quite a problem in growing vegetables, but for those with access, a smart solution can be found on ocean beaches. Kelp from the beach helps to neutralize a clay’s magnetism and release the desired nutrients into the soil.

Kelp’s Ocean Protection Loosens Clay in the Garden

Kelp produces a gel coating to protect it in cold ocean currents. This gel is known as a colloid. In this case, the colloid consists of salts, algae, and minerals dispersed evenly through a watery solution. Layered into a garden bed, kelp’s gel is capable of working it’s way between clay dirt particles. The magnetized particles loosen, opening the soil for vegetables to root through .

Clay dirt that is made “soft” by kelp has a new reaction to water. Rain no longer seals that portion of the clay surface to form useless pools of water above ground. Water can finally penetrate and coat the individual soil pieces, with airflow created in between by soil bacteria. The garden now breathes. Micro-organisms, bugs, and worms can crawl through the soil’s structure to do their work, building highways for clay’s unlocked nutrients.

The clay that previously kept nutrients bound to the individual particles now has a somewhat weaker electrical charge, and is able to share its nutrients, and let those nutrients in excess (usually salts) leach away with the flow of water.

Kelp’s Handy Nutrients Boost Garden Health

Adding to the useful nutrient that clay has to offer, kelp packs it’s own goodies for plants to thrive on. Stephen Thompson, director of the Gaia Research Institute, quotes a 1971 study which confirms “Kelp uniquely tops the list for the following nutrients: calcium, potassium, magnesium, iron, iodine, and is also very high in sulfur”. On his page of seaweed facts and figures, Thompson lists kelp as containing nearly a hundred periodic table elements. Of particular note are the trace elements that are often hard for plants to acquire. Trace minerals released by kelp grow stronger crops, imparting the strength to resist various pests and diseases.

Gardening with kelp adds a bonus for the families and neighbors who will consume a more wholesome delicious diet. The very vitamins and minerals that a human body requires to function are mirrored in the contents of kelp itself! Even the ratios that kelp built in the ocean closely resemble the ratios that humans require for optimum health. This is detailed on Thompson’s comprehensive page of research into seaweed facts. Vegetables grown in rich loosened soil built by seaweed will simply have a more complete supply of vitamins and minerals to offer.

Using seaweed to feed your fruits and vegetables strikes a direct path to your own good health. Strong food makes strong people, and when a garden thrives, so do its keepers.

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