Care for the Earth by caring for your earth
Green manuring is a great way to fertilise and increase the organic matter in your soil. Green manuring is an organic soil improvement method using a crop of mixed legumes and grains. The whole plants are harvested by ploughing the young plants into the soil just before they flower, investing the soil with nitrogen, organic matter and new life force.
Legumes are plants in the bean family which have a unique association of bacteria which can extract nitrogen from the atmosphere. Grains, which are types of grasses, are also used because they produce a lot of green matter quickly which on breaking down becomes soil carbon, or humus. So what we are doing here is a method of composting in-situ which can easily be done over large areas as well as backyard garden beds.
Green manure can be sown almost anytime of year but the plants used will depend on the season and your climatic zone. For seeds and information on warm and cool season green manure planting, have a look at Greenharvest or go to a stockfeed supplier if there is one in your area.
As a Winter garden is usually smaller in terms of productive plants, Autumn is a good time to sow on unused or exhausted soil to prepare it for your next Spring planting.
The time for breakdown varies with temperature and soil moisture, but it is usually around six weeks. Check there are no lumps of rotting vegetation before planting again.
An alternative no-dig method is a green manure mulch. Simply mow or slash the green manure and use as mulch.
We all would like to make a difference to our environmentally challenged world, so have you considered volunteering for a green project? Here are some ideas:
Volunteering opportunities abound:
You don’t have to be an expert to volunteer, you can learn on the job. The skills and knowledge you gain make volunteering very rewarding.
Here are some ways you can give support to the developing world’s green projects:
We are very excited to bring you two homeopathic biodynamic preparations, created by Cheryl Kemp.
If you’re not dedicated full-time to your garden, it can be difficult to find the time to stir and apply biodynamic preparations at the right times. But Cheryl Kemp’s biodynamic potentised preparations make biodynamics very easy to use in your home garden. The traditional biodynamic preparations are potentised using homeopathic methods and are sprayed in homeopathic quantities. Just mix and spray at any time of the day. You’ll get all the benefits of biodynamics but without the stirring and storage necessary for the traditional preparations.
The Complete Biodynamic Potentised Remedy assists in the breakdown of organic matter and reduces loss of nutrients. It also produces high quality compost through the action of the traditional biodynamic compost preparations 502 to 507. It attracts soil bacteria and fungi that enable plants to take up minerals and nutrients. In addition to biodynamic preparations, the Complete Biodynamic Potentised Remedy includes potentised boron and sulphur, as soil throughout Australia is generally deficient in these trace minerals.
The Biodynamic Potentised Silica Remedy is applied as an atmospheric spray to balance atmospheric moisture, helping to prevent fungal diseases, insect infestation, snails and slugs. It also aids the ebb and flow of sap between roots and fruit, thereby strengthening plants, increasing flavour and flowering, and ripening fruit.
It really is no fuss biodynamics for the home gardener. Available in the Backyard Biodynamics shop now.
Want to get your own vegetable garden started? Here are some tips to help you plan for success:
Your patch should be sunny and open, yet sheltered from prevailing winds, with good drainage. If your site is against a fence or wall, radiant heat may be reflected. This can cause sun scald in warm climates but reflected heat can be used to advantage in cool climates.
The size of your vegetable garden depends on how much time you are prepared to spend on it, and what you plan to grow. For example, a pumpkin requires 2 square metres, a lettuce 20 square centimetres. To avoid walking on the soil, the bed size should be 60-90 cm wide with paths of 30 cm.
If you keep animals such as chooks and ducks or have herbivorous wildlife around, you will need to fence your patch with chicken wire or use row covers. Young vegetables and seedlings are mighty tasty!
Raised beds are kinder to your back, and are necessary in poorly drained areas or where the soil has organochlorine contamination. This contamination has been widespread in gardens created before 1987, as now banned persistent chemicals were used to control termites around houses and fences. Raised beds are filled with clean topsoil and compost, then mulched. But watch out - the good drainage means they easily dry out.
No dig gardens eliminate digging and weeding. The method developed by Esther Deans is to create a low bed with bricks or boards, lay a thick layer of newspaper over existing lawn, cover with biscuits of lucerne hay, sprinkle with organic fertiliser, cover with 20 cm of loose straw, add another sprinkling of organic fertiliser, and then plant into 10 cm deep circles of compost.
The traditional garden at ground level has lawn removed, the soil dug over and compost added. The soil needs continual cultivation to remove weeds instead of using mulch to control weeds. It will need more watering due to evaporation.
Always use mulch to increase soil carbon, improve soil structure, conserve water and reduce weeding. Mulch tends to attract snails so you will need methods to deal with them, such as beer traps (a jar half-filled with beer and set into the ground will attract and trap marauding slugs and snails).
Trying to grow vegetables outside their natural season will only end in tears. So plan what vegetables to sow according to the season and your climate zone using our Monthly Gardening Guide.
We’re always on the lookout for new and delicious ways of eating our homegrown produce. So we thought we’d start collecting recipes to share on Backyard Biodynamics. Check out our new recipes section. Many thanks to Sian for kicking things off with her Sensational Stinging Nettle Pie.
If you have a favourite seasonal recipe using vegetables, herbs and fruits typically grown in backyards, we’d love you to share it with us and your fellow readers. Please send your recipes in to angela [at] backyardbiodynamics [dot] com.
And it doesn’t have to be all about eating your daily greens - at Backyard Biodynamics we have a great respect for the health giving properties of brown foods too … like chocolate.
We are very excited to announce the opening of our online shop. Over the next few months we will be adding products to help make your backyard biodynamic.
The first products on our virtual shelves are Brian Keats’ Astro Calendars for 2009 and 2010. These calendars are indispensable for planting and carrying out gardening activities at optimal times. Brian also includes a wide range of information about astronomical observation, weather forecasts and how planetary movements affect the Earth.
The 2009 calendars are half-price since the year is half over. So buy your calendar now for planning your Spring garden.
We are planning to stock homeopathic biodynamic preparations in the near future, as well as some necessary ingredients for homemade plant health and natural pest control. If there is something that you would like to see in our shop, please let us know by clicking on the Contact Us tab.
Spring seems to have sprung early on the east coast of Australia. In Sydney, there is colour bursting from flowers, beautiful blossoms have appeared overnight on bare branches and jasmine scents the air. Call it overexcitement, but I’ve sown some tomato seeds early. If it gets cold again, I can always take them inside for some mollycoddling.
So with Spring upon us, it’s time to think about preparing our garden beds and vege patches in earnest. Of course, you’ve all been working hard on that through Winter, haven’t you? If not, never mind. There’s still time to get things in order before you start growing delicious things to eat.
Start by spending some time observing your soil in different parts of your garden or the space in which you want plants, edible or otherwise, to grow well. Healthy soil is the most important element of a successful garden. Australian soils vary enormously around the country, and not many of us are blessed with naturally good loam. Many gardeners battle sandy soil, heavy clay, silty soil and everything in between. However, don’t lose heart if your current soil disappoints you. All soils can be greatly improved with biodynamic and organic methods.
The main aim of biodynamic soil nutrition is to create bacterial and microbial life within the existing soil, creating stable humus that feeds plant life. Humus is the organic matter in soil which is formed by the decomposition of plant material. Soils that have high humus content can support abundant living biological life which in turn processes plant material, animal manure and other organic material into more humus. Humus enables soil to retain moisture and therefore reduce irrigation needs. It also holds the necessary nutrients for balanced plant growth.
How to identify healthy soil
It is important to learn how to identify healthy soil so that you can remedy deficiencies and improve structure. Without living soil ― that is, soil that is full of living organisms such as worms and tiny fungi ― plants cannot thrive.
Soil that has a good level of humus is structured like crumbs and feels silky when rubbed between your fingers. The first few centimetres of soil, or topsoil, usually contains the most humus.
Dig down about 30 cm, look for a crumb-like open structure, and evidence of worm castings and worm holes. Roots and root hairs may run through the soil, and if they do, they should have soil particles clinging to them. This is another indication of humus content. Earthworms should be present where the topsoil meets the subsoil. Abundant soil life encourages worm activity and numbers. Earthworm castings have plant nutrients more readily available to plants than the soil itself.
In the next few posts, we’ll be discussing how to improve your soil, mineral deficiencies and ph levels.
This week we have added a Daily Planting Guide to help you know the best day to plant your seeds and seedlings and do any transplanting. Each day the moon travels on its path through the zodiac constellations. Each constellation positively influences different parts (or organs) of plant life. To learn which constellations are associated with which plant part, see our blog, “The science of moon planting”. Think about which part of the plant you wish to use or influence most. If you are planting spinach or lettuce, you want to eat the leaves, so choose a leaf day for planting. If you are planting broccoli, cauliflower or ornamental flowering plants, choose a flower day. It’s pretty simple.
So if you’re thinking about what you might plant during the week, check our Daily Planting Guide and get off to a good start by choosing a day that will bring positive influences to your plants.
The information for our daily planting guide is sourced from Brian Keats’ Antipodean Astro Calendar, 2009. For those in the Northern Hemisphere, see Brian’s Northern Hemisphere Astro Calendar, 2009. These calendars provide detailed information about moon phases, planetary movements, biodynamic practice and more. Our daily planting guide is intended for quick reference only - we recommend that you purchase an Astro Calendar for more detailed information.
Have you ever wondered why your grandma’s tomatoes are delicious red orbs and yours are a complete failure? Or perhaps you have never grown veges before and it all seems a mystery. The secret to having green thumbs is that there is no secret. It’s true that some gardeners are naturally gifted with plants, but it is equally true that everyone else can develop the skills and knowledge to successfully grow food. Organic/biodynamic growing is not complicated but there is a lot to learn if you are starting from scratch. Like any new skill, start out with the basics and then move on to the next stage when you are ready. We are going to develop this site with staged learning in mind.
Let’s start with four tips for gardening success:
Embarking on a new way of gardening can be a daunting prospect. Will it be doomed to failure? What happens if I rip up my lawn in favour of a vegetable garden and then I don’t have time to look after it? How will I know the right time to apply the biodynamic preparations? The answer is, you can convert to biodynamics at your own pace. There is no rule that says you have to do everything at once. Don’t bite off more than you can chew at the outset.
Start by simply going out into your garden and studying the space you have available. Even if you have lived with your garden for a long time, get to know it as a living organism. How does it change through the seasons? Where is the light and shade?
When I started out with biodynamics, I was already gardening organically. So my first step was to start applying the biodynamic preparation 500 (cow horn manure). I bought enough preparation for three acres. I have a quarter acre block. The amount looked so small. I stirred the 500 according to the accompanying directions and applied it with a little straw broom that I pilfered from my kids’ cubby house. The neighbours looked bemused as I walked around my place, flinging out what looked like water from a bucket. That was it. I’d become a biodynamic gardener. Now I do a lot more than that, but I will always remember how I started. You just have to take that first step. And then another one, and another …
Backyard Biodynamics is a place where you can learn, share and be engaged by biodynamic gardening in your own backyard. 