Hope you enjoy this article about a couple enjoying Biodynamic Gardening.
Barry.
a memoir about our journey to become farmers
Introduction to Biodynamic Farming
To many conventional farmers and gardeners biodynamic farming is some kind of new-age mambo jumbo that crazy hippie people use. However, the roots of biodynamic farming trace back to at least the early 1900′s.
Issues with pest control and a shortage of rainfall have forced us to find a better way to do things at our farm. For us, the solution is biodynamics and we will be sharing our journey here. This is an introduction and we will be talking more about special practices in the future.
Biodynamic farming is a term for a sustainable, ecological and spiritual type of organic agriculture coined by Dr. Rudolf Steiner. From everything I have read about this type of agriculture, people say it seems really crazy but it really really works.
The reason I am so passionate about this type of agriculture is because it gives us hope for the future. This type of agriculture is helping heal land that has fallen victim to deforestation. For example, one man in India has worked since he was a teenager to build a 1,300 acre forest from a dessert. Also Kenyan Nobel Laureate and graduate of a university in Kansas Wangari Maathai began the Green Belt Movement in Kenya. They have successfully planted over 51 million trees and have helped the rains become more regular.
And back to the question at hand; how do you do biodynamics? In order for biodynamic agriculture to work, it is necessary to create an ecosystem within your garden or farm. There are basically three ways that biodynamic farming works.
- Diversity: This part is quite possibly the most important aspect of biodynamic farming. The first part of this is crop rotation. This is not the modern corn/soybean type of rotation. This involves rotating from field to field and switching between very diverse plants that will add necessary nutrients to the soil. The next part involves interplanting and companion planting. A great example of this is planting lavender or thyme around grape vines. These plants often do not become tall enough to pose an issue, prevent growth of other weeds and impart a lovely flavor to the grapes. The final part of diversity is animal life. This part involves bringing in beneficial animals to your ecosystem. A great example of this is ladybugs to control aphids.
- Biodynamic Preparations and Compost: The preparations are key to the health of biodynamic plants. Compost Tea is one of the very important preparations. EM or effective microorganisms are also very important. In biodynamic farming it is also common to ferment the preparations underground in a bull horn. (This is the part where people don’t understand why it works, but it does.) These concoctions can get pretty strange, but they make awesome plants.
- Life force: This third part is the most difficult to grasp. It really sets biodynamic apart from organic. It uses celestial, seasonal and moon cycles along with earthly influences such as physics and chemistry to promote healthy plant development.
If you are interested in learning more about biodynamic farming, there are a couple great books on the subject. One is A Biodynamic Farm, for Growing Wholesome Food and the other is The North America Biodynamic Sowing and Planting Calender 2013
And about that rain problem, a little prayer for some rain in our corner of the world:
O God, in Whom we live and move, and have our being, grant us rain, in due abundance, that, being sufficiently helped with temporal, we may the more confidently seek after eternal gifts. Through Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Prayer Source: Novena in Honor of St. Isidore: Patron of Farmers by National Catholic Rural Life Conference, National Catholic Rural Life Conference
