I have just had another kick in the behind to pay more attention to something I think about every day. Dr Christine Jones is a name familiar to me from a variety of places but I hadn’t got around to investigating her work. A tip from a friend, thanks Ann, put me onto this video which has given me a whole new perspective on diversity.
I am now rethinking weeding – not doing it at all – and how I accumulate biomass for continued productivity. Wood chip may not be needed.
What I possibly do need is a wide variety of seed of perennial grasses and flowers that will cover the soil all year round. Yes it might get messy, but yes it will completely change maintenance, water consumption, pests and diseases.
The video is 45 mins of pure quality, but if you would like to take my word for it in two minutes these are the take home points:
- Diversity in EVERYTHING
- The weight of all human beings together expressed as a percentage of all living things is 0.01%.
- Plants are 81%
- Organisms we can’t even see protists, archea, bacteria and fungi make up 17%
- Organisms we can see, fish, insects, molluscs, mammals make up the remaining 1.9%.
- The point of this is that we are a very small part of a very diverse range of life. We are swimming in a sea of organisms we can’t even see, and a sea of organisms we can’t see are swimming within us.
- We need ALL of these organisms!!
- The bacterial and microbial makeup of who you are governs which genes are turned on and off.
- Human diet is becoming more and more simplified meaning that bacterial diversity in our guts is depleted.
- Eat about 30 varieties of plant based food each week and your gut health will increase out of sight.
- Most people are not getting close to 30 varieties. This diversity has the potential to vastly increase your wellbeing including reversing autoimmune disorders as different bacteria in your gut turn on or off different genes.
- 16 or greater different species of plants growing together covering the soil will stand up to drought conditions and actually thrive.
- The old thinking about different root systems being the key to plants growing together is not completely true, it is all about the soil life, fungi and mycorrhizal connections.
- Industrially produced nitrogen fertilizer is effectively pollution, replace it with organic biostimulants such as compost, worm wee, weed tea…
