Mother Earth bandages her wounds with weeds

At a recent talk by John, at Edible Forest Gardens in Wonga Park, he spoke about the damage we do to the soil when we dig or disturb it in any way. From what I understood, he said that Mother Earth has to bandage the wound when soil is uncovered or disturbed, and what we call 'weeds' are the first line of defence.

Yesterday we walked with Penny in Darebin Parklands, and part of the area we passed had been cleared, presumably for revegetation with indigenous plants. I was interested to see the baby wattles growing there, because I remembered John saying one of the first 'fixes' for naked, broken soil is plants that can add nitrogen to the ground, eg wattles.

I wondered what these seedlings would turn out to be:







Further along, beside the creek, there was another array of weeds, this time not native plants. (I couldn't help noticing many of them are edible.) It's fascinating to see them  trying to fix the nakedness of the soil. I guess they will eventually be removed, because the aim is to cover the ground with indigenous plants.

I guess they'll help build soil nutrients. The issue would be whether this is the type of nutrition the indigenous plants need.