With Spring bringing warmth to our hearts, minds and frozen hands, you can’t help but notice nature and welcome the occasional ray of sunshine on your face. Those of you who have had your hands in the soil regularly for years will already know that gardening simply makes you feel good. There is something very instinctive about gardening, the ebb and flow of the seasons, knowing that nature cannot be hurried, that there is something bigger than ourselves in an increasingly frantic world, this last year more than ever. Watching nature do its work never fails to impress me and understanding and respecting how insects and plants work in harmony can help your garden along too.

Historically we, as gardeners, have dug everything, sometimes twice.  The very act of lifting and turning the soil, as therapeutic as it may be to us, is disrupting the delicate balance, the all important layers that nature has worked so hard to create. Worms, insects and fungi are all essential for plant health and when left alone to do their job, will give back in spades, pardon the pun.

In particular, Mycorrhiza are beneficial fungi that live under plant roots, absorbing sugars from the roots in exchange for moisture and nutrients gathered from the soil, acting as extensions to the root system. When they are disturbed by all the energetic digging over, they simply stop working as effectively.