Biodynamic gardening: getting started

What biodynamic means in the garden

The biodynamic method goes back to the Agriculture Course that Rudolf Steiner gave in Koberwitz in 1924. In the garden it rests on three things: the rhythm of the moon and the constellations, a living compost and the preparations. Added to this is what every organic garden knows: no synthetic fertilisers or sprays, crop rotation, companion planting and green manure.

Step one: sow by the calendar

Each plant belongs to the day type of the part you grow it for: carrots on a root day, lettuce on a leaf day, flowers and broccoli on a flower day, tomatoes and beans on a fruit day. Plant out and transplant in the descending moon, harvest in the ascending moon. A few hours around lunar nodes and perigee are left free.

Weather comes first. If the soil is too wet or too cold, wait for the next suitable day; it comes round again after about nine days.

Step two: compost with the preparations

The five solid compost preparations, yarrow, chamomile, nettle, oak bark and dandelion (502 to 506), are pushed into holes in the compost heap as small balls. Valerian (507) is diluted and poured or sprayed over it. One set is enough for about ten cubic metres of solid manure, so plenty for a garden compost.

Pierre Masson builds compost in spring from March to May in the descending moon. It is best spread in autumn, from the descending moon in August to the end of November.

Step three: horn manure and horn silica

Horn manure (500) cares for soil and root. For a garden up to 1,000 square metres, 10 to 20 grams in five to ten litres of water are enough (Masson). Stirred for an hour, it goes onto the soil in coarse drops in the late afternoon: in spring on the day most of the beds are ready for sowing, in autumn after clearing the harvest (Wistinghausen).

Horn silica (501) supports light, ripening and flavour. In the garden about a quarter of a gram in five to ten litres is enough for up to 1,000 square metres, sprayed as a fine mist over the plants in the morning. Lettuce and cabbage get it when they start to form heads, root vegetables in the evening two to three weeks before harvest. Three to four sprays a year are usual in the garden.

Barrel compost and horsetail

Barrel compost after Maria Thun brings the compost preparations even where no compost lies. In the home garden 20 millilitres in two litres of water are enough for 200 square metres, stirred for 20 minutes. Two applications in March before sowing and one in November after harvest have proved their worth.

Field horsetail (508) is sprayed as a tea to prevent fungal diseases, ideally in the two days before full moon, in the morning in clear weather.

The first year

March: barrel compost twice before sowing. Late March to early May: horn manure on the prepared beds, build and prepare the compost. May to September: horn silica three or four times, depending on the crop. Mid-August to late October: horn manure after clearing the harvest, spread ripe compost. November: barrel compost after the harvest. In between, sow and plant by the calendar.

What you need

A calendar with the day types. A round vessel holding ten to thirty litres, half filled, for stirring. A hand brush for the coarse horn manure drops and a fine sprayer for horn silica. Plus the field spray preparations and a set of compost preparations.