Wealden Times | WT262 | March 2024 | Kitchen & Bathroom Supplement inside

We’re All Friends
Here
Jo Arnell gives us the ins and the
outs of companion planting
‘
No man is an island’, wrote
John Donne, and it seems,
nor is any other living thing,
from the tiniest microbe, the lowliest
worm, the most secluded hermit –
even the Mind Your Own Business
plant has to interact with others in
order to stay alive. We have all been
living in symbiotic relationships since
life began. Flowers, for example, only
evolved to please the bees and the
bees have been happily helping them
out with pollination for millions
of years. Complex and intricate
mechanisms have evolved to bind
different species together, encouraging
them to get along – or sometimes
not – with each other..Symbiosis
has enabled organisms to succeed
where otherwise they might not even
survive. It is usually transactional, each
partner benefits from the interaction,
but as with many partnerships, It
isn’t always mutually beneficial –
sometimes one partner benefits
more, or worse, it is a parasite and
benefits at the expense of the other.
The root of the matter
Some of the best companions are those
beneath the soil – the complex web
of fungi and beneficial bacteria that
live in the area around the roots called
the rhizosphere – a bit like the gut
microbiome found in our intestines.
Fungi and bacteria bring nutrients and
minerals to the plant roots exchanging
them for sugars, and helping to create
a healthy microbiome in the rootzone.
Plants can also exude chemicals
through their roots – to repel their
neighbours, or to warn other plants
and resist attack from pathogens or
insect pests. Their communications
are mainly via tiny mycorrhizal
fungi, which live in symbiosis with
the plant, often within the roots
of the plant itself. This helps to
explain why some plants mysteriously
flourish next to one another, and
how invasive species romp about
priceless-magazines.com 98