Texas Offering Member Martha Henschen shares what she has learned about gardening for butterflies in Houston, Texas. Her garden is part of the Texas Wildscapes program as well as home to a variety of wildlife. There are few gardening practices upon which all gardeners agree, but one is that there are many beneficial results from adding dead organic matter to the soil. In recent years, scientists at many universities have begun to understand exactly why. Ground Above ground we are accustomed to the idea of a food web.
Collards get their energy form sun, air, and soil.
Collards in turn are eaten by cabbage looper worms, and these are eaten by predaceous wasps and blackbirds. Below ground, a similar web is in action. Microbes, after all, are microscopic. Oregon State's Elaine Ingham has been studying microbes for years. What follows is a summary of her findings.