Invisible helpers are everywhere in the soil, air, and water. We actually depend on healthy microbes for our very existence. When you build a natural system for composting raw materials into nutrients for growing food, you have given life back to the garden’s environment by adding living top soil, which ideally should be full of beneficial fungus, bacteria, and other decomposers. These Invisible warriors help keep roots protected from harmful invaders, and add probiotics to the food you grow.

This is actually true for water too. A few posts back Kai mentioned how the green in pond water is not always a bad thing for your fish, and certainly not a bad thing for your water plants. Algae, which can cause the green color, is a microscopic plant, which feeds many creatures living in the water, including your young fish, and plants that you are intentionally trying to grow. Algae also produces a bit of oxygen, which aids the life in the pond, and the constantly dying algae particles fertilize any plants ready to take it up.

You of course never want a pond to get so green it is out of control, and same goes for the use of fertilizer in soil. Permaculture is about balanced systems, cycles, movement, and longevity. Nothing should ever smell fishy, only clean and earthy.

When growing naturally, you want to nurture the production of a probiotic environment, which means fostering a “pro-life” system, as opposed to a anti-biotic system, which can develop if too many chemicals are used. This can translate into our own bodies as well.

So, if we are what we eat, let’s start regenerating our backyard ecosystems!