Most people think plants are rooted in the soil mainly for stability and to siphon up water. Instead, plant roots are surrounded by microorganisms – fungi, bacteria, and many others – all furiously engaged in a dynamic partnership with plants and each other in which they trade carbon, nutrients, water, protective chemicals, and more. Without those partnerships, plants weaken and falter.
Partnerships like these are at the heart of nature. They go on inside us humans—our microbiome is like an orchestra of trillions, constantly working together to fine tune our health and function—and everywhere in the landscapes around us. How can we better appreciate those partnerships—and especially, work with them and not disrupt them—as we farm and garden?
Kristin Ohlson is a freelance journalist and the author of The Soil Will Save Us: How Scientists, Farmers and Foodies Are Healing the Soil to Save the Planet and is working on a new book about cooperation in nature, called Sweet in Tooth and Claw. She lives in southeast Portland.
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