ALL THE LEAVES ARE BROWN

PHOTOSYNTHESIS

Each and every leaf is a tiny self-contained solar panel. Gently awakened by the sunshine every morning each leaf begibns to sparkle with warmth and life. And so the process of converting this energy of the sun(heat) into chemical energy(sugars) begins.

6CO2 + 6H2O + light energy = C6H12O6 + 6O2

Crucial to his process is the mineral Iron. Just like any Iron exposed to the sun - it warms up nicely. A leaf with abundant iron also warms up nicely to assist the absorption of heat energy.

Intircate in the process of photosynthesis and located in leaf is the trace mineral manganese. Here, quite remarkably manganese switches over and back between 2 different versions of itself. In doing so, it captures then shares energy by accepting and donating electrons in the conversion of sunlight to sugar. (See this interview with Don Huber, Professor Emeritus, Purdue University.)

Silica then works extremely hard maintaining firmness and uprightness in the leaf to maximise leaf surface area facing the sun, without sagging or drooping.

LEAF BREATHERS

As well as being a tiny energy factory, leaves are nutrient breathers from the air. Pulling in the lighter elements they penetrate the leaf stomata and the cuticle on the upper part of the leaf. In fact, folilar feeding of plants through the leaf uses of this facility efficiently, delivering quailty nutrients straight into growing systems.

This ingenious absorption from the air is a secondary source of nutrient for leaves, trees, grains, fruit, vegetables, herbs and grasses. And some species plants rely nearly exclusively on this method where harsh and dry environments make soil nutrients unavailable.

DECOMPOSED LEAVES

Discarded by trees, at the end of summer, leaves are abubdant in exactly the minerals, trace minerals & their trace elements that fuelled photosynthesis in the first place. Better still, they're in the form that soil loves, having offered them up to the plants in the first place.

They need a certain type of encouragement to relase their nutrient lode into soil. And they'll happily offer up their all to your soil over the winter months, fuelling next year's produce.

Combined with twigs and branches, ashes and charcoal, leaves replenish soils' energy, without destroying the delicate microbial system beneath - something that commercial fertilizer can't do

Storing and stockpiling the fuel in this way is essential. For the busy growing season ahead the energy associated with the minerals, trace minerals & their trace elements combines to provide even more energy to the growing system.

This powerful and naturally rich form of fertilizer increases the likelihood of rich, nutrient dense, tasty, healthy produce, the envy of all who sample its deliciousness.

LEAF FERTILIZER

From the decaying leaves at the end of the season, those same leaves return nutrients to the forest floor and right back into the earth.

Since time began, Mother Earth has been using these raw materials as fuel and as energy for growth. Strong grains, grasses, trees, herbs, fruit and vegetables thrive on these natural materials returning to the earth.

The difference is that they're already plant-ready and practically ready to jump into plants' root systems again. Massive energy is not needed to convert them into another chemical form for absorption and they're ready, willing and able to give their all for the cause.

Commercial fertilizer also provides this energy in abundance, but at the cost of the microbial community, soils' most precious resource. This microbial network beneath the surface converts elements in the soil into plant-ready minerals, trace minerals and their trace elements - And plants then make them human-ready. The disassembly of this connection provides soil of less and less quality and food of poorer and poorer nutrient standard.

NATURAL RAW MATERIALS

Leaves as we now know are plentiful in trace minerals such as silica, iron, manganese and lots of carbons. With the dry matter, proteins, amino acids, lignins and fibre, a tremendous amount of energy is supplied for soil building activity. 


Ashes are a very concentrated source of heavy earth minerals, as the lighter minerals having been burned away. Charcoal the lighter mineral holds the heavier minerals tightly, especially calcium, so it doesn't drop out of the root zone. Charcoal also hold nitrogen and carbon and is home to a robust microbial world.  

Twigs and branches give precious energy to soil to build and renew in dormant winter months, ready for a full-powered growing season.  

Large chunks of wood are a tremendous resevoir of precious water that all parts of soils' activity needs. These raw materials are nurturing the soil as a compost heap would - but right where we need it and with more strength.

THE LEAF METHOD

Adding leaves to your garden soil is easy. Just follow these steps:

Spread the leaves generously over your soil - they will shrink a lot so don't skimp.

Spray a microbial stimulant onto the leaves like surgar or molasses dissolved in water.

Consider also a humate-based biostiumulant or fish-based product.

Leave for a few days then work about 5 - 7 inches of leaves into the soil with a hoe or shovel

Let the soil rest for the winter months.

This simple process of working leaves into the soil together with twigs, branches ashes and charcoal builds your entire soil ecosystem beneath the surface which lives and breathes. This material in the raw was the foundation for enormous Jurassic Forests.

THE MODERN METHODS

The Indian proverb summarized it well: "We don't own the earth, we simply inherit it from our children." Yet in our parks and along our streets leaves are gathered for removal and disposal. Tons and tons are sent to landfill every year, removing a precious resource form our soil - plant - foodchain. Without good soil we loose the foundation for nutrient dense food and the real heart of human health. The power to create strong soils that global warming effects of commercial fertilizer production is at our fingertips.

 "A nation who destroys its soil, destroys its people."(Rooselvelt)

Scientific research shows the sheer volume of carbon capture by soils While commercial fertilizer production is one of the most rampant destroyers of the ozone layer this simple addition of leaves to the garden soil can do your part to save the planet.

The balance can be struck with proper soil testing to determine the needs of the particular soil. In fact recently a B6 Vitamer has been discovered acting as a signaller to the plant when sufficient amonia has been absorbed, redcuing the need for nitrogen absorption.

ANCIENT SOILS
In the Jurassic World there was no commercial fertilizer and no folilar sprays. There were no herbicides or pesticides. Nutritionists believe jurassic soils contained up to 30 times the minerals, trace minerals & trace elements of todays' soils.

Trees grew literally the width of a house....and reached for the sky. They poured out phenomenal amounts of oxygen into the atmosphere. They were the lungs of a thriving planet.

An entire world grew stronger by the hour feeding off these forest greens - leaves, plnts, ferns, moss. The creaking of growing jurassic forests made decible level noise.The relentless renewal took place on the forest floor and built soils with immense nutrient density.

 Its no wonder vegetarian dinosaurs or herbivores could maintain their incredible strength and power on these immense greens on offer.

THE LEAF GARDEN 

And here is that garden area  a few months after the leaf appliction. As you can see, the extra serving of manganese, carbons, silica - in the exact for the soil uses, paid off very well indeed!

THE GREAT DYING

Life on earth today is decendent from the 4% of species that remained after this catastrophic event. 

As a result of the events of The Great Dying, the course of life on earth was altered dramatically:

• an extreme reversal of the seasons
• poisoning of the atmosphere
• suffocation of life on land and in the ocean
• the collpase of entire food chains
• starvation 

Life on earth was almost wiped out forever. What little that survived didn't do so for very long.

The whole course of life on earth shifted forever. Beginning at The Siberian Traps, thousands of square miles of lava burst through layers of coal and spewed out toxic gasses like a giant exhaust pipe from the centre of the planet.

The planet cooked - then rapidly froze. The ocean heated up, releasing toxic methane buried deep in its sediment. These poisonous gases pillaged the oxygen and finally dumped carbon dioxide into the ocean. 

The following over-acidification of the seas was the kiss of death for the remaining life in the ocean. It is the closest life has ever come to being wiped from the face of the earth forever.

After The GREAT DYING, it was absolutely not the strongest who survived. It was the most opportunistic, the most adaptive and ecologically tolerant species who bounced back. 

Known as disaster taxa, these tolerent species adapted faster and evolved intricate strategies for survival. They filled the empty spaces in the evolutionary gaps.

The Horseshoe Crab for example tolerates very low

levels of oxygen to survive in habitats of fluctuating salinity. Its blue blood coagulates when it encounters bacteria. It is a true survivor from the land that time forgot.

Another among the reptile species that survived The Great Dying is the recently discovered resilient Teyujagua Lizard. This 250 year old fossil of a dinosaur relative is also called the 'Fierce Lizard'.

Another distinct group who adapted quickly was known as the therapsids. Examining their bone microstructure before and after extinction a team of palentologists found the genus Lystrosaurus evolved remarkable strategies on how to survive extinction.  These included reducing its physical size and breeding younger increasing its lifespan by up to  40%.

Biologist Dr. Peter Ward suggests that while crocidilians and mammals merely survived in the post great dying world, dinosaurs survived the major mass extinction. They emerged, and even evolved. They adapted with a unique air-sac system we call 'bird-lungs' in response to the oxygen depleted air of 12% - 16%.

OCEAN ANOXIA

The overall recovery however was first thought to have been a painfully slow process. 

The planet's oceans were so incredibly starved of oxygen. Also abundant soil run-off into oceans as a result of the lack of plant life caused further delay.

Massive algae blooms were the result, starving the oceans beneath of precious oxygen. And this lack of oxygen was thought to dramatically slowed the rate of recovery. (However scientists also believe that the varying evels of oxygen at different depths supported more diverse forms of life.)

Their findings recently published have suggested that widespread ocean anoxia caused oxygen levels to take nearly 5 million years to return to normal levels. "Explaining the 5-million-year delay in the Earth system's recovery to pre-extinction conditions after the Permian extinction has been a challenge," said Kimberly Lau, a PhD candidate in geological sciences at Stanford's School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences. 

2017 GREAT DYING STUDY

A new haul of diverse fossils in Idaho has caused a dramatic re-think. According to a recent discovery at the Paris Biota site, life recovered more quickly than we thought.

Lead Patentologist Daniel Stephen from Utah Valley University said: "The information that my colleagues and I have gathered tell us that at least in some places the recovery was relatively rapid."

THE RECOVERY ON LAND

Unsurprisingly recovery on land was characterised by a tremendous fungal spike. Fungi and microbes recycle dead matter and return their nutrients to the eco system. This creates fantastic symbiotic relationships with plants and acts as vast extensions to plants’ root systems. 

Fungi today have been discovered to play a significant role in both the clean-up and detoxification of toxins and poisons on the planet. 

FROM THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT

The paleontoligist Richard Fortey gives us a remarkable insight into how species have adapted and survived the mass extinction events that have shaped our world today.

Ancestors of crabs an lobsters like trilobites and brachiopods developed structures and systems that gave them and advantage with tough thick exo-skeletons that protected them.

THE HORSESHOE CRAB

 

The closest living decendent of these creatures called the horseshoe crab evolved with many of their ancestors' characteristics. Evidence shows they go back 400 milion years. 

Fossilized remains of horseshoe crab from the jurassic period show that they haven't changed a lot since then. Having surived at least 2 great mass extinctions they are extremely tolerant to environmental change.

 

The blood of the horshoe crab is not based on iron and red like ours - its blue - and based on copper. When confronting bacteria, it clots.

THE GINKGO TREE

Particularly interesting is the survival of the ginkgo tree. It grew in Jurassic Earth and dinosaurs once feasted upon its leaves. 

So incredibly resilient and adaptive, this tree actually survived the atom bomb in Japan, producing new shoots soon after it was dropped. 

The ginkgo tree is known as 'the tree that time forgot' . It has remained unchanged for an incredible 200 million years.

 

It is known as a living fossil and the oldest tree on earth. It's adaptabilty to different environments is quite remarkable, having thrived in radically different ecosystems since the dinosaurs roamed the earth. 

Today, its toughness and ability to withstand pollution is legendary. 

GINGKO GENOME

Recently a team of researchers drafted the genome sequence of the ginkgo. They discovered a high level of gene duplications and gene clusters possibly responsible for:

• enriched stimuli response - including defense
• multiple defense mechanisms against pathogens and insects
• enhanced resistance and adaptibility

Palentologists made a recent discovery of an extremely rare petrified ginkgo bark dating back 160 million years in Western Liaoning, China. Published in nature.com it revealed a cell structure virtually the same as it is in today's ginkgos. Scientists are now able to mark some of the earliest steps in ginkgo evolution as can be seen in nature.com.

GINKGO BRAIN POWER

Revered for its brain boosting properties, it is used widely in the treatment of mild cognitive impairment, alzheimers disease and dementia. In a remarkable study, Gingko Biloba extracts' powerful ability to alleviate brain changes brought by aluminium chloride may be down to specific anti-oxidant properties.

 

The leaf contains an extract called EGb-761. Standardised to contain about one quarter flavone glycosides and 6% flavone lactones, this is where the magic is found. Avoid products extracts containing gingkolic acids, from seeds and poor quality leaf. These have been shown to be dangerous and even carcinogenic.

  

At The Pittsburgh Ginkgo Festival celebrating a living fossil and educating all ages on the cultural history of the tree is the aim. They aim to protect this trees' rich heritage for future generations.