Soil Microbes Can Heal Us

[David Yarrow]

SOIL MICROBES CAN HEAL US: CARBON, SOIL & HEALTH

Scientists' garden unlocked the secret to good health

When Anne Biklé and David Montgomery fed their failing soil with organic matter, they were astonished by the results. Stimulating the microbes that live beneath the surface led the garden to flourish. 

Then, when Biklé was diagnosed with cancer, the couple had an idea…

https://www.theguardian.com/…/anne-bikle-david-montgomery-h…

Juicy is the best word to describe Anne Biklé and David Montgomery’s garden, even in the dying days of autumn. 

Emerald green, dewy grass; a vegetable patch where leafy kale stands tall and arugula nestles low; shrubs and trees – cork bark maple, Persian ironwood and wax myrtle – screening the area from passersby and a late-flowering rhododendron bearing plump red blooms.

It is this oasis that led them on a remarkable journey into another world, one that exists beneath our feet and is run by microbes, creatures invisible to the naked eye.

Their plan to create the garden in the barren backyard of their new house in north Seattle was nearly thwarted by the very thing that makes it so lush today: the soil. It had been wrecked by glacial till – small golf-ball-size rocks packed in hard clay left by glaciers thousand of years ago.

Biklé obsessively layered compost on the beds and to their surprise their new plants grew rapidly and abundantly. But Biklé’s background in biology and Montgomery’s in geomorphology meant they weren’t content to sit back and enjoy the fruits of their labour.

They were intrigued at the speed of the transformation and began poring over scientific papers to find out why. The more they found out about microbes and how they turned compost into a smörgåsbord of other nutrients for the growing plants, the more they rethought not only how they viewed soil but also – prompted by Biklé being diagnosed with cancer – human health, medicine and agriculture. Their mission of discovery is charted in a book they cowrote, The Hidden Half of Nature, out in the UK this week.......[snip].....

for a green & peaceful planet,
David Yarrow
dyar...@gmail.com
573-818-4148
www.dyarrow.org
http://dyarrow.blogspot.com

one moment can change a day, 
one day can change a life, 
one life can change the world