This article orginally appeared in The Spring 1999 issue of Florida Landscape Architecture Quarterly, reprinted with permission from the author.
Little things run the world.
This is especially true when it comes to getting plants established. Under natural conditions plants live in close association with soil organisms called mycorrhizal fungi. These fungi colonize plant roots and extend the root system into the surrounding soil. Estimates of amounts of mycorrhizal filaments present in healthy soil are astonishing. Several miles of filaments can be present in less than a thimbleful of soil associated with vigorously growing plants.