Biodynamics: a Cosmic Approach to Gardens
In the yellow glow of the autumn moon, a human form enters the garden and buries a cow horn filled with cow manure, 2 feet deep in the soil. Months later, after cold winter winds give way to balmy spring breezes, the buried horn is dug up and its contents, transformed by cosmic and biological forces, are used to enhance the vitality of plants in the garden. This is obviously not the work of your average gardener. Here we have a “biodynamic gardener.”
Biodynamic gardening encompasses virtually all that it takes to have a green thumb, then adds a little more. The system is founded on a series of lectures given in 1924 by Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian philosopher. Dr. Steiner stressed the need for a holistic approach to agriculture.
A biodynamic garden or farm is a diverse ecosystem. Think about the soil life in the average garden. Here you might have a row of carrots flanked on either side by dry, tilled soil whose sole nourishment was a few handfuls of 10-10-10 fertilizer in the spring. By comparison, a gardener growing carrots biodynamically would enrich the soil with compost to feed soil microbes, then the carrots. And rather than a row of only carrots, the biodynamic garden might have a happy commingling of carrot plants with bean plants. Herbs figure prominently into biodynamic gardening.
Small amounts of specially prepared potions are used to balance plant growth. A single ounce of the Biodynamic Compost Preparation--a mixture of chamomile, yarrow, dandelion, stinging nettle, valerian and oak bark--is said to improve a ton of compost. A spray made by stirring a pea-size piece of that buried cow manure into rainwater is applied to the soil to improve seedling root growth. Yet another concoction, made from horsetail, is used to combat fungus diseases.
Biodynamics is a holistic approach to agriculture in the widest possible sense, also factoring in cosmic influences from the moon and the planet.
While some of this does seem like hocus-pocus, biodynamic gardens are notable for their vibrant plants.
Perhaps it is the herbal preparations; perhaps it is the moon. Or perhaps it is the emphasis biodynamics puts on the close relationship between the garden and the gardener.
The French have a saying for this: “The best fertilizer is the gardener’s shadow.”
For more information, contact the Biodynamic Farming and Garden Assn., P.O. Box 550, Kimberton, PA 19442.
