Ligaya Gardening Tips #4 Grow Azolla

We often get asked for gardening tips, so have decided to do a weekly post describing things we do to keep our garden going well with little effort.

Here’s this week’s…

If I was asked to list the most useful plants in the garden, I would rank Azolla in the top 3.

It’s positioning in that group would depend on my mood or needs on the day, but it would be up there with the best of them.

Azolla (Azolla filiculoides) is a fast growing aquatic fern that I originally wrote about in Grass Roots Magazine No. 257 Feb/March 2020  in a little article titled ‘Amazing Azolla’. I’ve posted about it in some detail here too.

Azolla can be harvested in thick handfuls and placed directly around the plant where its thickness makes for a cooling blanket and its moisture will be appreciated. Azolla doesn’t take long to break down either so its nutrients can be accessed quickly.

It is one of our chicken’s favourite hot weather snacks. It is a moist and cool green that helps with their water intake. Azolla is high in protein so they get a nutritional boost from it too. They love it!

• 

• 

This time of year, I apply it in thick layers around plants in pots. In the pic below, one of the Moringa trees are getting a treat. I’m sure they will say ‘thanks’ in their own way.

Azolla is very easy to grow in tubs or aquaponics (but give it a separate tub with extra filtration on the outlet of the bed out or you’ll have it everywhere!). Check out our Azolla page for more details on how we grow it and you’ll soon have too much (if that’s possible)?