RhizoPhyllia

Soil Food Web gardening workshops.

$The Beth Chatto Symposium 2026We live in a fractal universe; repeating patterns across different dimensions. Quorum sens...$

30/08/2026

The Beth Chatto Symposium 2026

We live in a fractal universe; repeating patterns across different dimensions.

Quorum sensing is an essential component in the ancient microbial world that governs all other forms of life.

On a macro scale, modern human society is a form of quorum sensing, a collective consciousness working for some greater purpose than the individual interest. Was the latter an inherited trait from the former?

Connections Through Time, the theme of this year’s stand-out Beth Chatto Symposium, drew together an enormous pool of individual talent, whether on stage or seated, in Essex or at home, to benefit the BC Educational Trust. What greater purpose and vision than sharing knowledge, stories, company and time?

What an awesome job Team Chatto 🙌, what a privilege to be one of the thousand and more 🤯❤️🙏

Beth Chatto's Plants & Gardens

26/08/2026

River Cottage holds a very special place in my heart River Cottage ❤️
They gave me the opportunity to lead many geological tours through the last 250 million years of Earth history captured in the fields at the HQ. They also hosted my prototype soil food web workshops.

I made the most wonderful friends not least my mushrooming buddy John Wright who recently handed over the reins of the fungi foraging and seashore foraging courses to Nick Phillips Grown Up Mushrooms (pictured picking rose hips with our hero). John is 6ft but is standing in a ditch! He is most worthy of following in John’s footsteps and making it all his own. Lucky RC!

John has been at River Cottage since 1999 and is still leading the hedgerow foraging days which I couldn’t recommend highly enough. In fact everything about River Cottage is sublime and so different.

Thanks for a great feast Dom (Head Chef)

Roll on the next 21 years ❤️🔬🦠🍄‍🟫🥦🌻🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌

11/08/2026

This is an event like no other in the world of horticulture and gardening and tickets are nearly sold out.

Two years ago I was gifted the honour of presenting but my overriding memories are of the wonderful people I met and their willingness to listen and share their wisdom.

I will be in the audience this year, hungry for more. But for those attending the legendary gardens on the 29th I will be providing RhizoPhylliaFests throughout Saturday. With connections in time the theme we will delve deep into the geological past to explore how plants came to be, and why!!

Crack on!

Beth Chatto's Plants & Gardens

10/08/2026

‘Being in love often changes us, and sometimes it comes to define us. The object of our devotion could be a person, a dog, a home or, as with Kipling, a landscape. In his poem “Sussex” he expresses his love for the cliffs and beaches, woods and vales, of what he felt to be his county. For your author the beloved area is much smaller - a single area of chalk down land in West Dorset’

So begins the latest bound-to-become classic by the wonderful and dear John Wright, namely ‘Grasslands’.

Written in his unique, authentic and authoritative style I’m hanging on every word as if I’m being introduced to this marvellous world for the first time.

Having had the pleasure of my nose to the turf at Hog Cliff under his instruction, I can assure everyone that you will feel he is beside you as you read.

Thank you so much John for gifting me another small part in your researches, that’s three books now; you have the patience of a true naturalist! 🥰

John Wright

21/07/2026

RhizoPhyllia 90 Second Top Tip: Meadows 🌻🌾

Stop cutting (indeed if you have started by then) by March and then cut in late July. This allows spring and summer flowers to emerge. A late July cut (no lower than 6-7cm) also knocks back aggressive grasses and stops them smothering wildflowers. Take advantage of dry weather and leave on the ground for a few days before gathering.

I tend to stagger the mowing times by a couple of weeks or so to encourage diversity. I cut again in late September and keep short over winter.

A patch of wildflower meadow, however small, is a boost to any garden, in diversity above ground but in restoring soil health and productivity. Go to for more information and watch this space for the Great British Wildlife Experiment (a million gardens) from

Crack on as they say 😉🥰

18/07/2026

The ‘Coffee Cup’ slake test! This is a very simple but extremely effective way of analysing your soil structure.

In a healthy, productive soil the bacteria secrete sugars that glue fine particles together into microaggregates. Fungal glues draw those microaggregates into larger bundles called macro aggregates. The result is gaps that allow air and water to get down into the soil where roots and microbes need them, and for their respired CO2 to vent naturally.

In a biologically depleted soil this structure collapses and effectively compacts the soil and your plants tell the story!

Use a lump of moist soil from 2-6cm deep and just watch it immersed for a minute to see if it falls apart (first sign of bad news) then very gently swill the cup.

You have to be a little mindful of soil type (sandy vs clay) but you’ll learn how to become expert on a workshop here.

Crack on, or not in the case of this particular crop!

16/07/2026

Please Note: Use gloves for this to avoid the spikes on the leaves!! Or shears or a lawn mower! My hands are super tough because I regularly need my bare hands to analyse texture of soils and sand and gravel during exploration projects.

Allowing comfrey and nettle tea to become anaerobic promotes sulfide metabolising bacteria and gassing off of stinky hydrogen sulfide! Ammonia is also lost and so too nitrous oxide (a nasty greenhouse gas) And for what gain? A short caffeine-type hit for your plants that needs super-diluting first?

I would rather all that nitrogen, hydrogen and sulfur in my compost. So dry comfrey and nettles, shred them, and mix them in your compost heap. Just needs a little bit of patience and trust in your plant-loving microbes.

At RhizoPhyllia we explain how such things actually work so you have all you need to make decisions. Why not enrol on one of our workshops. Please visit our reviews or drop me a line.

Crack on! (Yes, I deliberately said ‘snap on’ in the video!)
😁🥰🔬🍄‍🟫🦠🥦🌻

06/07/2026

There are a number of reasons I’m so excited about RHS Badminton
1: its RHS Badminton tomorrow!!!!!! 🥳🌻
2: its 40 minutes from RhizoPhyllia 🙏😁
3: You ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
4: Paul ‘Juppy’ Jupp of and I will be dusting down our double act again so if you are in the mood we are In The Grow on Saturday and Sunday with ‘Meadows and Microbes - Nature’s Elixir for Life’
5: RhizoPhyllia and The BioCharged Compost Co will be set up at BFS 440 next to the allotments for a Q&As throughout the show. BioCharged | CompBucha | Plant Probiotic
Crack on!
🔬🌻🍄‍🟫🦠🥦🌋🥰

27/06/2026

‘Right plant, right place’ takes on a whole new perspective when you consider the bacteria and fungi that intimately associate with plants. 🔬🌻🥦

These are the tiny but vital bioengineers and biogeochemists who, over billions of years, figured out how to live in every niche on their/our planet. 🌋🏔️🏝️

The plants we see thriving where we see them are a direct consequence of that microbial relationship. Gorse on an acidic, free-draining, sandy substrate is naturally there because of acidic, warm, free-draining, sandy loving microbes.

Microbes effectively ‘invented’ plants and sustain them; in return the plant’s photosynthetic machinery feeds the microbes. I call this Ingeniobiosis, an engineered mode of life.

Plants that struggle are plants that cannot plug into their microbial network because their microbial partners are not naturally evolved in that substrate. 🦠🍄‍🟫

When we say a plant likes full sun and a dry substrate we actually mean that the microbes that learned to tolerate full sun and low water availability are passing that ability on to the plant that feeds them; now we are in symbiosis and evolution simply decided on the form of that plant.

Crack on!

Address

Wootton Bassett

Telephone

+447376238608

Website

http://Rhizophyllia.co.uk/

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