Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Biodynamic Gardening and Composting











Biodynamic gardening is a work in progress!  There is so much to learn.  We are starting off with a compost pile, built according to biodynamic principals.  Mommy took a workshop at Steiner College and got to see some large compost piles in action at Raphael Garden.










At home, we created our own pile with layers of straw, manure, greens, and lime/ash.  Soon, we will add the biodynamic preparations to it.

Straw






Manure







Greens







Lime/Ash






The kids helped shovel, cut and cover the pile. 












Once or twice per week, we check and record the temperature using a really long thermometer. We are hoping that the pile will get to around 130 degrees F.












Signs of decomposition!  Mushrooms, bugs, earthworms.... 



























We drew about composting in our Main Lesson Books, showing how we layered the pile, the stages of decomposition, and the biodynamic preparations.














Next, we learned about the Zodiac and drew a wheel showing days that are good for planting and harvesting.


















The Astro-Calendar is helping us learn more about when to sow and harvest.













More biodynamics to come....
The Biodynamic Sowing and Planting Calendar 2010
Gardening for Life - The Biodynamic Way: A Practical Introduction to a New Art of Gardening, Sowing, Planting, Harvesting

12 comments:

Linda said...

Beautiful post, thank you!

Jen said...

This is just awesome, Jennifer! I always learn so much from you :D Thank you for sharing and happy composting!
Jen

Andrea said...

Oh your compost pile is so much tidier than mine (which is more of a crow/blue jay feeding station). I bought my husband a Biodynamic calendar last year and it just turned into an excuse to avoid the garden--"Oops, can't plant the greens today; it's a 'root' day."

LillyZoo said...

great post guys!

Mama G @ bigcraftyblog.blogspot.com said...

Boy your blog is just fantastic! We just started ours if you would like to visit us. GlennFmailyGardens focusing on self sufficiency and Big Crafty Blog on...well crafts :)Thanks :)

Anonymous said...

Que bueno lo que hacen...
Are you using compost starting preparation?
I will do my compost pile when temperature increase here, still is cold outside...
By the way, the natural Easter Egg Dyeing ebook is wonderful
Thanks for share once again
gracias por compartir nuevamente
bendiciones

Tan Family said...

Thank you, everyone! Jimena, we will most likely get our preparations from the Northern California Biodynamic Assoc., as they are a bit complicated for us to make ourselves.

Anonymous said...

we incorporate biodynamics in our gardening as well and I really like your compost ;-) Good stuff!

Melissa said...

Wow! This all looks so interesting - what a great post:)

Grandma said...

You are going to have one awesome garden this year! I have done a little planting this week. I should start a compost pile, you are inspiring.

Kathleen Scott said...

Way cool! We've composted for years, nothing so fancy as yours, just layering vegetal kitchen waste, greens (grass clippings from the neighbors) and browns (mostly oak leaves). In time it makes great rich dirt. The raccoons turn our pile here, searching for fruit scraps.

I can tell you from personal experience how good compost is for plantings--when we lived in Florida, 2 hurricanes in 3 weeks covered our yard in brackish water. Power was out, no rinsing the salts away; stores were closed, no buying dirt to prop up the blown-down plants. We used up our large compost pile. Within a few weeks, the plants were flourishing and there were blooms in places we'd never seen them.

Jenn said...

we need to do this really bad. thanks for sharing the bio-dynamic composting. we've been talking about this alot lately and your graphs help us visualize it.