Rhizosphere Riddles

Happy Earth Day Plant Lovers! 

Recently we attended a tree care symposium at our local botanical gardens. Surprisingly, it was a talk about soil health, not trees, that was the most interesting.

Joe Murray, a former biology professor, explained how roots communicate with the fungi and bacteria in soils. The rhizosphere is the millimeter of soil that surrounds roots. That tiny space is home to an incredible amount of life that we don't fully understand. This is essentially where microorganisms exchange nutrients and minerals in the dirt for sugars and proteins exuded from the plant.

Living in only 1 gram of soil there are over 2,500,000 bacteria and archaea, 400,000 fungi, 50,000 algae and a ton of other life and micro-life. The rhizosphere is the most dynamic ecosystem on the planet! For an explanation with pictures check out this page. Or for a more scientific explanation, you can go here. 

Because healthy soil is necessary for growing food, we endanger ourselves by degrading it with bad farming practices, poorly planned development, and our own ignorance about caring for lawns and gardens. The speaker recommended The Rodale Book of Composting, and Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture to learn more about fostering healthy soil in our yards and communities. 

In closing, we would like to welcome all the people we met at shows in Nashville, Boston, and Alexandria. Hello! We are always happy to bring you a little story from the plant world. For those of you that we haven't seen at a show this year, you can see the latest additions to our plant art below.

Happy Spring!
Sara & Cesar