Skip grueling workouts at the gym and get fit in your garden! These gardening activities will give you a better workout while growing something amazing.
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Salpichroa origanifolia (pampas lily-of-the-valley) has a stronghold across my backyard as well as neighbours yards. It’s considered a highly invasive species here. While we’ve ripped up a chunk of it and regularly mow the above ground portion, there are so many underground rhizomes/runners and seed-bank creating new plants…
I’ve been in the property for less than 6 months so don’t know when it was established, however seeing how overrun the neighbours yards are on both sides with it I figure it’s been here a fair while and crept across properties
I’d love to take a “work with nature” approach and plant something that could outcompete it, or create conditions to halt it in its track.
Suburban block in Melbourne, australia, dry sandy soil, growing in both sunny and shady spots, in a patchy weedy lawn.
Any ideas? 🙏
Edit: rest assured I am working on swapping the suburban lawn for a more diverse and permaculture informed garden 😀
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Anything outcompete pampas lily-of-the-valley? Read More »
Little is known about how seedlings sense new soil environments and how the rhizosphere bacteriome changes accordingly. It is important to elucidate these changes to better understand feedbacks that contribute to nutrient cycling and plant fitness. Here, we explored how the tomato rhizosphere bacteriome developed weekly throughout the vegetative developmental stage and with variable nitrogen (N) fertilizer additions. Bacterial communities expressing diverse functions highly fluctuated in the first and second week after planting, and these fluctuations diminished progressively after the third week. Bacteria capable of biocontrol stabilized after the fourth week, while those involved in nutrient cycling continued to change in abundance week-to-week. Thus, bacterial specialization may be concomitant with bacteriome stabilization. With N fertilizer application, bacteria with diverse functions continued to fluctuate through the fifth week. However, regardless of fertilization, bacterial communities stabilized by the sixth week. It may take two weeks for roots to select for soil bacteria to assemble a specific rhizosphere bacteriome, but when N is applied, this period extends. Subsequently, roots may select for bacteria that are already established in the rhizosphere rather than from the bulk soil. This study showcases the dynamics of rhizosphere assemblage and how this process is affected by N additions.
Plants can modify soil properties over time through interactions with soil microorganisms, creating a legacy that may influence subsequent plant growth. This study investigates how soil vegetation covers affect growth and nutrient uptake and phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N)use efficiencies in two eucalypt species, and the impact of new plant cultivation on soil microbial traits. Using a greenhouse microcosm experiment, we compared soils from a 20-year eucalypt plantation (Euc) and secondary vegetation (Sec) covers, cultivated for five months with Eucalyptus grandis, E. globulus, or left uncultivated. We measured plant growth, P and N concentrations, root and soil enzyme potential activities, and soil properties. Results showed that E. globulus plants in Euc soil had 23% higher shoot biomass production and 27% greater P uptake efficiency compared to plants in Sec soil. Both eucalypt species showed improved P and N use efficiencies in Euc soils, suggesting beneficial soil legacy effects. Furthermore, microbial traits related to arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi persisted partially in Sec soils, suggesting a beneficial AM fungal legacy for new eucalypt cultivation. The potential activity of enzymes associated with soil carbon and sulfur cycles was clearly influenced by plant presence, whereas enzymes related to the P cycle maintained their potential activity regardless of plant presence, indicating a lasting soil legacy for P mineralization enzymes. The results highlight the role of plant-soil feedback in nutrient utilization and suggest that soil management strategies should consider past vegetation to enhance sustainable eucalypt production.
Disease-resistant wheat cultivars exhibited significantly lower infection rates in field conditions, associated with higher microbial diversity in key compartments such as the rhizosphere soil and phylloplane. Microbial community analysis revealed compartment-specific selection effects, with significant horizontal microbial transfers noted across plant tissues, suggesting a strong compartment-dependent selection from soil microbiomes. Further, resistant varieties were enriched of potential beneficial microbial taxa that contribute to plant health and disease resistance from seedling to adult stages. This was verified by rhizosphere microbiome transplantation experiment, where the inoculation of the rhizosphere microbiome of resistant cultivars suppressed pathogen infection and enhanced plant growth, indicating that wheat resistance to soil-borne virus disease depended on the interaction of the host with the microbial community around it. Our results also demonstrated that the microbial composition and network at the seedling stage predicted wheat health and pathogen susceptibility. Disease infection simplified the intra-kingdom networks and increased potentially beneficial taxa such as Massilia, Bacillus, and Pseudomonas within the microbiome. Overall, our findings provide novel insights into the microbial dynamics influenced by host traits and their implications for disease resistance and plant health, offering potential strategies for agricultural biocontrol and disease management.
Host genotype‑specific plant microbiome correlates with wheat disease resistance Read More »
The recalcitrant nature of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) straw, one of the most abundant agricultural residues, presents challenges for efficient decomposition, limiting nutrient release and organic matter retention in soils. Understanding the effects of tillage practices on wheat straw decomposition and shaping associated microbial communities is essential for enhancing microbial-mediated breakdown and optimizing residue management to enhance soil health, nutrient cycling, and sustainability in agricultural systems. In this study, the effect of different tillage practices on wheat straw decomposition and associated bacterial and fungal community compositions during non-growing and growing seasons were studied. To simulate tillage, litter bags filled with wheat straw were placed at respective soil depths for conventional (22–24 cm) and reduced (8–10 cm) tillage, and on the surface for the no-tillage treatment. The subsets of the litter bags were randomly retrieved after 145 days and at the end of the experiment after 290 days. Statistical analysis revealed that tillage treatments significantly influenced the decomposition rate and nutrient release over time. Overall, the alpha diversity of the decomposition-associated microbial community was not substantially affected by different tillage treatments, while beta diversity exhibited distinct microbial community compositions in relation to tillage practices. The results of this study contribute to a deeper understanding of wheat straw decomposition-associated bacterial and fungal communities’ response to different tillage treatments, with observations made at two distinct sampling times (non-growing and growing seasons) under certain edaphic and climatic conditions.
🌿 Discover the Perfect Plants for Your Space! 🌿 Explore our handpicked collection of cycads, aloes, seeds, and more to transform your garden or landscape. Shop Now Morphological characteristics of Aloe confusa Aloe confusa, a captivating yet enigmatic succulent, presents a unique set of morphological characteristics that contribute to its intriguing taxonomic history. Its fleshy,
Aloe confusa: The Confused Aloe – Complex Taxonomy Read More »
🌿 Discover the Perfect Plants for Your Space! 🌿 Explore our handpicked collection of cycads, aloes, seeds, and more to transform your garden or landscape. Shop Now Description and Identification Aloe woodii, also known as Wood’s Aloe, is a remarkable and visually striking succulent hailing from the rocky landscapes of South Africa. This fascinating plant,
Aloe woodii: Wood’s Aloe – South African Species Read More »
I was reading a new book I got “Land Stewardship for Birds: A guide for Central Texas”.
It’s been an awesome read and highly recommend. When talking about water erosion on land, the book authors suggest not using culverts on the land, but create a low crossing with rocks. I have a cracked concrete culvert on my driveway that’s needed replacement. But now I’m going to look into alternative options. Whenever I search the internet, all I get are adds for culvert repair/replacement or how to install a new one.
Have any of y’all done this or have examples of removing a culvert and creating a natural low water crossing? It seems pretty straight forward IMO, but I like to see what others have done before I give it a try.
Maybe some important details for my circumstance:
The land is undeveloped, not driven on regularly. The water shed comes from a low area on neighbors property, not a creek or stream, so it only flows in major rain events. However, downstream of the culvert has been eroded over the years and I’ve been working to repair and slow water in the area for a while.
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Replacing a culvert in driveway with a natural alternative Read More »
