This week Nick decided that the time was right to crack out the donkeys. In West Cork it is common practice to use seaweed as a fertiliser come mulch come compost. Over the past couple of weeks we have been digging the vegetable beds so that they are ready to be loaded with seaweed. The seaweed will rot down over the winter and nourish the soil so that it will produce masses of tasty vegetables next summer.
Seaweed is regularly ripped up from the seabed during the wild storms that frequent the Atlantic coastline. Loads of it gets washed up on beaches where keen gardeners are then free to come and load their cars, tractors or (as in our case) donkeys with the stuff.
The Rossbrin property runs adjacent to the shoreline and quite a few of its fields back right onto the beach. There are no roads so these beaches can only be accessed through the property. Not only is this an amazing luxury, but it means that Rossbrin enjoys most of the seaweed pickings exclusively.
It is a 1km trek through the fields and up into the vegetable gardens, and this is an awful long way to lug multiple loads of seaweed. So - in true permaculture style - to combat the problem, Nick (the owner of Rossbrin) decided to acquire two donkeys solely for the purpose of baring seaweed from the beach up to the vegetable beds. A little crazy? Perhaps. Fun? Definitely!
Written by Yasmine: Rossbrin WWOOFer
For more information see my blog too!
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For more information see my blog too!
http://averywholesomeadventure.weebly.com/the-wholesome-adventure.html