A healthy alive! soil

Biodynamics.

Biodynamics is the next step on from Organics, it uses planting and sowing by the Moon along with a series of Preparations to stimulate the soil and protect crops.

Rudolf Steiner in a series of lectures in 1924 taught that the farm or garden is, in fact, a living organism and to be treated as a whole, not soil and plants and weeds as individuals. Inputs as much as possible should be grown on the farm or garden rather than bringing them in from outside. This involves growing crops such as Sunflower and Corn etc to provide ingredients for Compost Making.

Fertilising as such comes from Compost and Cover Crops, also there are the Preparations as I mentioned earlier. Preparation 500 the most widely used is Cow manure stuffed into a Cow horn and buried in the ground over the winter months to break down into a very powerful soil additive, it adds Organic Matter and helps the soil release Nutrients that are “locked up”.

Preparation 501 is crushed Quartz Crystal again stuffed into a Cow horn but buried during the summer months when this is applied it increases sunlight strength and enhances ripening. After this, the other preparations protect and enhance the plant, Compost heap and soil in different situations.

Planting and sowing by various moon constellations are encouraged with many Calenders now available to guide you with correct phase to manage your garden. This is one area that I practise almost religiously now since trialling the timings and achieving some extremely great results.

Biodynamic Gardening is starting to gain a larger and larger following, some of its regimes are a little “out there” initially but when you start to apply these principals the results follow and like me you become a convert.  Compost making is an art and many a local Biodynamic gardening group gather to make a “Brew” almost as a ritual. The passion that is shared during the making of Compost I am sure is instilled in the Compost itself.

There are some very good Biodynamic sites on the Net now with valuable information and ingredients to help you achieve a healthy balanced Garden.

Happy Gardening,

Barry.

Facebook Blog click here

Biodynamics in Australia, http://biodynamics.net.au/

Moon Planting Calander, http://www.lunarium.co.uk/

Organic Seed Supplier in Australia,http://www.greenharvest.com.au/

Cheers,

Barry.