An updated/enhanced excerpt from my book (Recipes For Reciprocity) offering info on remediating geoengineering material contaminated soils. An invitation to become Keystone Species in our bioregion.
'Mimiso tree (Albizia julibrissin)" is also called acacia, isn't it??? It grows all over here. And it is beautiful, not only that it, the blossoms smell incredibly. This I found out only once, after covid can't smell them any more!!! And it was really special, because via that smell I started to remind some events when I was 4... !! I hate the 'covid' crime.
Not sure about "acacia". Here in southern Ontario people just call them Mimosa trees. Yes I love the blossoms fragrance and appearance as well.
I am sorry to hear about your challenges with the sense of smell. I wonder what is the biological mechanism where a viral infection could do that permanently? Is it the actual receptor cells in the nose or is it a brain thing?
It makes me think of how some people with nerve damage to their ears were able to actually regain some of their hearing via eating foods/fungi that initiate neurogenesis and synaptogenesis via stimulating the regeneration of damaged cells.
I wonder if you could do similar?
My next article on healing foods is going to be on neuroregenerative / neuroprotective foods so perhaps there will be something in there that can help you.
We have a lot of work ahead of us. I also believe we are here to "tend the earth". We can most certainly work with nature and assure abundance and health of the planet for as long as we are here at the same time. It seems what has been done over the decades is we have been taking more and more from the earth without investing anything back into it's health. It's unfortunate that giant corporations and governments don't get that! But, we do have a lot of power as individuals. Each of us can make a difference in our space for sure. It's more difficult in areas like where I live which is a high desert. Because of the lack of moisture and short growing season it is a chore, but it's still possible. It just takes a long time because things grow very slowly. To me, there's not many things more gratifying than to see areas of my little plot that used to be dead, being slowly revived. Opting for as many native plants as possible to use in landscaping (those that are acclimated to the climate already), producing my own generational open pollinated seeds that have "learned" the climate and soil, and just using common sense have done wonders. I've found that we have become so incredibly lazy as a people that we continually beg for a centralized government or corporation to "fix" everything for us while complaining that "we can't do anything". I've grown wearing of hearing excuses for everything when the solutions are often within our reach and within our own power. It just takes a bit of self-motivation and, quite frankly, giving a damn. Another excellent post. :)
What does one do with these plants used for remediation? Compost in a separate location, and plant more of them in that spot to further break down the toxicity?
That would depend on the type of Phytoremediation you are engaging in and also would depend on the type of contaminant you are focusing on.
For example, Phytovolatalization would release the soil toxins into the atmosphere but Phytoextraction is about hyperaccumulating things like heavy metals in the tissues of plants. Thus, you would not want to eat plants that are doing the work of Phytoextraction of toxins and you would not want to chop and drop them in place (as they would just add those toxins back to the soil). If one was using a plant for Phytoextraction of heavy metals, then yes, you would remove that plant material from the area you intend to cultivate food/medicine in.
The heavy metal laden plant tissues would be added to another site where edible foods are not grown. Perhaps underneath a tree that is capable of hyperaccumulating the metal into its body (while simultaneously protecting the soil against erosion, providing habitat for winged beings, serving as a wind block, being beautiful to look at, etc).
Some people actually use this ability of plants to hyperaccumulate certain metals in their tissues to actually mine ore from soil for selling.
Of course, that would not be feasible as a profitable endeavor for the average person that does not possess huge processing equipment, and I doubt it would be profitable for things like aluminium, barium, strontium, lead or mercury (regardless of one's access to specialized equipment).
But how cool would it be if someone figured out a way to do Phytomining on a DIY low tech scale?! One could theoretically team up with plants to gather some kind of ore for smithing into an object! Now that would be real alchemy! (and a form of non-invasive mining) :)
OK I thought something along that way. Not really sure that we have much to worry about in our garden because this yard was a country school from 1909 until 1966, and one of the students of that school bought the property to turn into their residence (they lived here for 40 years). The only thing that may still be here is whatever he liked to spray to make his lawn look "good". But he sold in 2014 and the buyers only used the house as a stop over for visiting family, so since then there has been nothing sprayed in the yardsite.
wonderfully useful! That
'Mimiso tree (Albizia julibrissin)" is also called acacia, isn't it??? It grows all over here. And it is beautiful, not only that it, the blossoms smell incredibly. This I found out only once, after covid can't smell them any more!!! And it was really special, because via that smell I started to remind some events when I was 4... !! I hate the 'covid' crime.
Glad you find the info useful.
Not sure about "acacia". Here in southern Ontario people just call them Mimosa trees. Yes I love the blossoms fragrance and appearance as well.
I am sorry to hear about your challenges with the sense of smell. I wonder what is the biological mechanism where a viral infection could do that permanently? Is it the actual receptor cells in the nose or is it a brain thing?
It makes me think of how some people with nerve damage to their ears were able to actually regain some of their hearing via eating foods/fungi that initiate neurogenesis and synaptogenesis via stimulating the regeneration of damaged cells.
I wonder if you could do similar?
My next article on healing foods is going to be on neuroregenerative / neuroprotective foods so perhaps there will be something in there that can help you.
I hope you’re inviting the fungi. They have a knack with this sort of thing.
Yes indeed, Mycoremediation is the next chapter after Phytoremediation in my book :)
I`ll publish that chapter on here next month as well.
We have a lot of work ahead of us. I also believe we are here to "tend the earth". We can most certainly work with nature and assure abundance and health of the planet for as long as we are here at the same time. It seems what has been done over the decades is we have been taking more and more from the earth without investing anything back into it's health. It's unfortunate that giant corporations and governments don't get that! But, we do have a lot of power as individuals. Each of us can make a difference in our space for sure. It's more difficult in areas like where I live which is a high desert. Because of the lack of moisture and short growing season it is a chore, but it's still possible. It just takes a long time because things grow very slowly. To me, there's not many things more gratifying than to see areas of my little plot that used to be dead, being slowly revived. Opting for as many native plants as possible to use in landscaping (those that are acclimated to the climate already), producing my own generational open pollinated seeds that have "learned" the climate and soil, and just using common sense have done wonders. I've found that we have become so incredibly lazy as a people that we continually beg for a centralized government or corporation to "fix" everything for us while complaining that "we can't do anything". I've grown wearing of hearing excuses for everything when the solutions are often within our reach and within our own power. It just takes a bit of self-motivation and, quite frankly, giving a damn. Another excellent post. :)
What does one do with these plants used for remediation? Compost in a separate location, and plant more of them in that spot to further break down the toxicity?
That would depend on the type of Phytoremediation you are engaging in and also would depend on the type of contaminant you are focusing on.
For example, Phytovolatalization would release the soil toxins into the atmosphere but Phytoextraction is about hyperaccumulating things like heavy metals in the tissues of plants. Thus, you would not want to eat plants that are doing the work of Phytoextraction of toxins and you would not want to chop and drop them in place (as they would just add those toxins back to the soil). If one was using a plant for Phytoextraction of heavy metals, then yes, you would remove that plant material from the area you intend to cultivate food/medicine in.
The heavy metal laden plant tissues would be added to another site where edible foods are not grown. Perhaps underneath a tree that is capable of hyperaccumulating the metal into its body (while simultaneously protecting the soil against erosion, providing habitat for winged beings, serving as a wind block, being beautiful to look at, etc).
Some people actually use this ability of plants to hyperaccumulate certain metals in their tissues to actually mine ore from soil for selling.
Check it out: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0375674213000228#:~:text=Phytomining%20of%20gold%20involves%20extracting,friendly%2C%20aesthetically%20pleasing%20and%20profitable.
Of course, that would not be feasible as a profitable endeavor for the average person that does not possess huge processing equipment, and I doubt it would be profitable for things like aluminium, barium, strontium, lead or mercury (regardless of one's access to specialized equipment).
But how cool would it be if someone figured out a way to do Phytomining on a DIY low tech scale?! One could theoretically team up with plants to gather some kind of ore for smithing into an object! Now that would be real alchemy! (and a form of non-invasive mining) :)
OK I thought something along that way. Not really sure that we have much to worry about in our garden because this yard was a country school from 1909 until 1966, and one of the students of that school bought the property to turn into their residence (they lived here for 40 years). The only thing that may still be here is whatever he liked to spray to make his lawn look "good". But he sold in 2014 and the buyers only used the house as a stop over for visiting family, so since then there has been nothing sprayed in the yardsite.