264: Anne Biklé on Microbial Roots of Life and Health

264: Anne Biklé on Microbial Roots of Life and Health.

Mapping the nutritional highway that connects healthy soil to healthy plants.

Anne is a biologist and avid gardener whose wide-ranging interests have led her into watershed restoration, environmental planning, and public health. She uses her broad background and endless fascination with the natural world to investigate and write about people and their environments.

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Anne is also a rampant plant whisperer, coaxing plants into rambunctious growth or nursing them back from the edge of death. She uses her garden, a nearby traffic circle and sidewalk planting strip as places to watch plants, people, and their interactions. She co-wrote The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health with her husband David Montgomery who was our guest on Episode #259.

In This Podcast:

The microscopic world of fungi and other soil organisms is crucial to the health of soil, plants and any being that lives off those plants. Biologist Anne Biklé understands the relationship between the lifeforms which create the microbiome that starts the food chains, and helps explain the basics in this conversation.

Listen in and learn about:

Early memories of seeing a tall fragrant iris and falling in love with plants
Wanting a space for a garden
Struggling with a poorly planned landscape at her new home
Learning about the microbial world in the soil and in their bodies
Why microbes are so important
An explanation of the microbiome
Most of the life on the planet is congregated around the roots of plants
How the rhizosphere is related to plant growth
How a plant uses photosynthesis to convert carbohydrates to exudates which it then does not use directly itself
The relationship between plants and mycorrhizae fungi which forms a nutritional highway
What makes for healthy soil
The basics to healthy soil
The villain in her story of rebuilding soil at her property
How they overcame the poor soil condition
Mulching the soil from free materials
The carbon analysis of different areas in her yard and why there was variations
Get chip drop.com
Some resources she found to help get the soil replenishment started
The cardboard and mulch process she used on the side of the house
Why she is against landscaping fabric
Some key information available in The Hidden Half of Nature
Our important relationship with nature thru microbiomes

As well as:

Her failure – The time she killed a couple trees by piling mulch too high and smothered the roots
Her success – Learning to trust the plants to do what they do when given what they need
Her drive – Wanting to learn how and why the natural world works the way it does
Her advice – Do what you can – with what you have – at this time