earthseedlings

This photo shows a beautiful riparian scene near my home. What makes individual areas such as this so vibrant and diverse is called a ‘holon’. The concept of the holon comes down to how we see and glimpse the interconnectedness of living organisms within an ecosystem, primarily based on metabolic similarities. That ecosystem (or holon) can be as simple as your back garden or as imposing as a rainforest - all micro and macro aspects showing the same collaboration and interconnectedness. The essence of a holon is a dynamic ecosystem bound by metabolic similarities and mutual cooperation where everything from the tiniest microbe to the tallest tree, exists in harmony, working together to sustain life. Observing nature this way highlights the remarkable and intricate relationships between plants, animals, microorganisms and their environment, that create a self-sustaining abundant and complex system. This is only lost via external ( human) interaction that causes imbalance and then subsequent disease. Where we may see diverse and seemingly different forms of organism working in competition to decompose organic matter and make nutrients available to plants, in reality these interactions are dynamic and based on cooperation. Micro and macrobiota in the soil, along with surface-dwelling insects, birds, and herbivores play crucial roles in nutrient cycling, pollination, and seed dispersal, creating resilience, balance, stability and fertility. The subsequent high level of biodiversity ensures a robust ecosystem that functions and productivity is enhanced via biochemical interactions. It may even be possible that by observing, trying to understand and nurturing our holon whatever size that may be, we can enhance ecosystem health, by fostering a deeper connection with the world around us . 🌍🌱 #biodiversity #sustainability #ecosystem #ecosystemrestoration #gaia #reforestation #restoration #nature #naturebasedsolutions #miyawakimethod

Human connection with the world around us can be incredibly subtle but profound. Take the role of hormones such as adrenaline, serotonin and decanol, to name but a few that attract a wide range of animals and even bacteria and fungi. If a stressed farmer nervously approaches his crops, cortisol is produced in the body which in turn stimulates the production of adrenaline. This hormone then leaves the farmer and spreads out in a trail of subtle sweat and evaporation. Without knowing it, he attracts a large number of microorganisms, insects and animals to his crops who pick up the wavelength of the adrenaline. His biochemical signals unleash systemic reaction in the ecosystem around him. In a similar way when we are relaxed and calm we emit serotonin. This can have a positive effect on the immediate environment around us. If your roses or tomato plants have aphids try talking to the plant ( but only when relaxed) . The serotonin you emit attracts microorganisms that can make the aphids move away ! Having green fingers isn’t actually a myth just interactions we no longer understand. The beauty of this is we can see the place we have in nature - not the director or boss, but directly interacting with the living world around us where how we feel and act has a connective ripple affect to the living world we inhabit. #biodiversity #reforestation #restoration #gaia #harmony #nature #naturebasedsolutions #forest

The effects of walking into a forest has been likened to walking into an immense cathedral. You enter in one state and emerge in a subtly altered state. The truely grand and noble cathedrals of Europe have been specifically constructed to include the sacred within their geometry and will induce an uplifting, calming - often reverent state of being. The human being just needs to be there and be immersed in the unseen. A forest will induce similar profound and beneficial experience and potentially more. Science can go part way to explaining this experience - the terpenes, negative ions and compounds such as alpha and beta pinene released by trees are contained within the air we breath and soil we walk on. These are absorbed into the immune system and then allowed to affect the brain, body and mood, making us more alert, calm and bringing attention back to the moment while unseen healing takes place. The combined connection back to nature and our true home and place is profoundly grouding and can be inexplicably peaceful sometimes. Sound as well plays a role. We have evolved to instinctively recognise bird song and the sounds of biodiversity as the sounds of safety that allow us to relax and our immune system to shift from fight or flight into the parasympathetic state and a more relaxed state where healing takes place. #biodiversity #forestbathing #gaia #miyawakimethod #reforestation #restoration #permaculture #syntropic #nature #naturebasedsolutions

Negative ions are one of nature’s unseen super healers. There to heal us unconditionally as we step outside and feel the earth beneath our feet. Found in places such as forests, waterfalls, ocean surf and mountains, negative ions are partly responsible for the uplifting experiences and a sense of wellbeing we normally experience in these calming places. As we breathe in negative ions our oxygen levels are increased, free radicals neutralised, cell metabolism revitalised, immune system function enhanced and a general sense of well being is increased. One of the reasons we always feel more relaxed after time amongst the trees. A typical bustling city street may contain a negative ion concentration as low as 100 /cc and an air conditioned room even less.. Whereas a forest ( particularly a pine or coniferous one) can contain a negative ion count of up to 50,000 /cc. Negative ions can be produced by plants when exposed to intense light during photosynthesis and by moving water. Larger trees are even able to draw up the ions from deeper pure groundwater and release them out into the ambient atmosphere. The negative ions will often become ‘trapped’ under the forest canopy creating a highly healing atmosphere than we are unaware of as we pass amongst these highly functioning ecological societies that do so much unconditionally to improve our quality of life. 🌳 🌲 #biodiversity #wellbeing #forestbathing #shinrinyoku #miyawakimethod #ecosystemrestoration #ecosystem #restoration #water #rewild #nature #sustainability #forests

Our ancestors lived in harmony with with our planet as they walked barefoot, used natural elements to plant and build, and sat and slept directly on the ground. The modern world has disconnected us from the earth below our feet and it’s flow of natural energy, making us more vulnerable to illness and stress Still today traditional societies that keep alive their ancestral roots and maintain contact with the earth do not experience the common sleep and stress related health problems of the modern world. Earthing, also known as grounding, is making direct skin contact with the earth’s surface and tapping into its natural energy source. By connecting directly to the earth, our bodies can easily absorb free electrons which are an amazing source of antioxidants that benefit our health and wellbeing. By being barefoot anywhere in nature - walking, sitting or laying down on the ground, or even touching the elements of nature we instantly ground. Mother earth has a limitless supply of beneficial negative ions. When we connect with the ground below us these benefical electrons are transferred to us and help neutralise the impact of harmful positive ions that build up in our bodies due to modern days stresses and electromagnetic fields. This electron exchange also induces physiological changes that promote optimum health. Healing starts instantly as normalisation begins and an anti- inflammotory switch within us is turned on. If we don’t connect to the earth we remain inflammed and healing and balance is extremely hard. The harmonious sensations we experience after a walk in a forest, being by the sea or just working in the garden are all directly linked to the healing connections beneath our feet. #biodiversity #Miyawakimethod #restoration #reforestation #gaia #forestbathing #permaculture #syntropic #naturebasedsolutions #nature

Sessile Oaks that dominate our temperate rainforests can be home to 300 types of lichen alone, when the conditions are right and the biomes are left to be. The Scots Pine too has a unique relationship with several rare types of lichen. One particularly symbiotic lichen grows happily on the bark of the pines, absorbing nitrogen from the atmosphere. Finally the lichen falls to the ground where the nitrogen is slowly released into the soil and given back to the tree. Lichen is also a key bio-indicator, highly sensitive to changes in it’s immediate environment such as increased air pollution. If lichen starts to suffer then it’s a sign something is out of balance in the surroundings. This unique blend of fungi and alga is also a natural insecticide, you don’t see insect damage on lichen. So it has the potential to be a natural form of insecticide - if used as a decotion or in homeopathic. #biodiversity #ecosystem #reforeststion #biome #miyawakimethod #rewild #greenspaces #nature #restoration #naturebasedsolutions #biophilic

High up in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco is a still productive food forest with origins over 2000 years old. Resembling a true mythical oasis, the forest is an example of one of the world’s oldest sustainable systems of agriculture whose origins have been lost to history. Up until relatively recently the 65 acres of food forest was managed by 800 local families to produce an abundance of yield, including banana, tamarind, citrus, fig, guava, pomegranate, mulberry, carob, quince, grapes, olive and argan as well as crops such as wheat, corn, pulses and beans. Being a forest the oasis has a key overstory of date palms providing shade, a cooling microclimate and deep tap roots for water lifting. Over the centuries villagers would have gradually observed and mimicked natural relationships and planted certain species closer to others. Through trial and error the right combinations and layering would have naturally evolved and become pretty much self-sustaining - as the productive forest still is today. #biodiversity #miyawakimethod #foodforest #permaculture #ecosystemrestoration #ecosystem #rewild #restoration #afforestation #reforestation #nature #naturebasedsolutions #climate

Pine trees and strawberries have a strong mutualist and beneficial connection. The pure, natural growing environment for wild strawberries has always been the edge of pine forests - along the mantle edge. There are several practical reasons for this as both parties benefit from the exchange. Strawberries are susceptible to fungal infection as well as preferring a lower ph. Pine trees ( in particular pinus sylvestris ) offer a range of anti fungal properties, primarily root exudates and mycorrhizal collaborations. These go a long way to preventing fungal infection of the strawberries. The pine needles also lower the ph of the area and benefit the wild strawberries. In return ! Strawberry plants are really good accumulators of boron, an element pine trees often lack. So there is an exchange as the strawberries offer the boron to the trees below ground and through die back of their leaves. I’ve been told pinus sylvestris trees growing amought arable crop help keep fungal disease to a minimum via the same sharing process.

The willow is a remarkably healing tree for nature as well as humans . It’s well known as a source of salicylic acid that is the basis for aspirin. The trees also release other beneficial compounds and acids that we can easily absorb through our skin or lungs. Indigenous people of N America use the willow as a treatment for mild depression and loneliness in a unique version of forest bathing. The patient is seated in a willow grove and left to relax. Slowly they absorb the chemicals released by the willow and these move through the body causing relaxation and hopefully benefit . The effect is said to be enhanced by the proximity of moving water.

Why don’t we see more trees in rice paddys ? Arsenic within rice production is a real issue now. The heavy metal occurs naturally in soil and groundwater, and is also present as a result of mining and past use of pesticides, paint and wood preservatives, all of which contained arsenic. Combine this with the fact rice is very porous, and as such will absorb a lot of the available arsenic from the flooded fields it grows within. Several species of tree are able to remove arsenic from their growing environment. The trees hyper-accumulate the heavy metal - literally absorbing it from the soil and groundwater and then storing it safely in their tissue and epidermis. Types of willow and poplar are particularly good at this, but also birch and types of acer. All fast growing species too, when water is readily available. So if trees such as these were planted and incorporated into paddy fields they would go some way to removing a percentage of the available arsenic in the immediate growing area. There would also be the numerous additional added benefits trees bring such as : shade, biodiversity creation and habitat, groundwater level balancing, ground stabilising, fertility building, windbreaks, fodder, transpiration, ground cooling and more. Planting could potentially be linear such as systems found in agroforestry and syntropic farming that allow for easy access and also a secondary income for the trees or understory planting.

Species of fungi are able to degrade a wide range of pesticides and heavy metals in our soils. One is even known to break down plastic. Nature really does continue to amaze and offer solutions to clean up our human made mess and incompetence. Where we make mistakes, nature offers solutions. Apparently there is even an enzyme found in some virgin soils that can degrade glyphosate. A fascinating thought is that the enzyme pre dates the chemical by millions of years, so has it always been there waiting with the intelligence to do this or is it just chance... White rot fungi produces an enzyme that is able to degrade pesticides and man made dyes. Oyster mushrooms are able to clean up certain heavy metals including lead, nickel and arsenic and to detoxify land after wildfires. There is even one species that contains ‘Aspergillus tubingensis’ an enzyme that breaks down plastics. Apparently it is able to live is salt water too... It would be interest to trial this form of bioremediation, combined with reforestation of polluted land. A possible way could be to spread an inital layer of wood based mulch inoculated with fungi spores on the polluted area, allowing the fungi to establish and work their magic. Then dense planting of multi strata forest species could be planted to recolonise the land. Many pioneer trees species also offer bioremediation potential so these could be considered within the forest species too. Just an idea but worth exploring.

Hazel - known as The Tree of Knowledge by the Irish Celts, is easy to grow and provides multiple benefits for biodiversity. Perhaps the most important is the early season pollen and end of winter flowering that provides vital early forage and thus energy for bees and pollinators. Butterflies and moths also use the tree as a home and food source while ground nesting birds such as nightingales and willow warblers regularly seek shelter in hazel thickets. Hazel trees are also associated with the delicate hazel dormouse whose favourite food is said to be hazelnuts and then in the spring the caterpillars that feed on the leaves in early spring. The little hazel dormouse is now on the endangered list as it’s naturally habitat of hazel groves and wild hedgerows have been largely destroyed. So plant a hazel or two - now is a good time! 🌳 So If you want to do something practical to help biodiversity now, plant a hazel tree or two in the corner of your garden. #biodiversity #wildlife #wildlifeconservation #ecosytems #naturebasedsolutions #nature #ecosystemrestoration #rewild #miyawakimethod #restoration #reforestation #climatechange