Nuture Nature: Biodynamic Gardening

Biodynamic Gardening is a holistic approach to working with the land, from digging in the dirt, plant selections and companion planting, to seasonal cycles and harvesting. Within my landscaping company in Southern California I have used biodynamic concepts from the first site oveview to the final walk through once installation is complete. On the ranch were we live for instance we use double digging and soil preparation everytime we install a new plant and it works especially in our arid climate.

Here on avajance.com I have gathered some important information on the concepts of biodynamic gardening and how it works so to educate myself and my clients.

http://www.mnn.com/your-home/organic-farming-gardening/stories/biodynamic-gardening-takes-holistic-approach-to-the-soil

Want to enhance the health and vitality of your garden? Try gardening biodynamically. It will deepen your understanding of the life processes that happen in the garden and enhance the quality and flavor of the food you grow.

Many people are familiar with how organic gardening avoids using chemicals and focuses instead on more natural and ecological approaches to growing food. Biodynamic gardening takes that approach to the next level not just by changing what organic gardeners do in the garden but also by altering how they view the garden.

That view is one in which all of the many aspects that make up a garden — soil, plants and animals (both domestic and wild) — are seen and managed not as individual parts but as a single, integrated, self-sustaining whole. If that sounds like a holistic approach to digging in the dirt, it is. Welcome to biodynamic gardening.

Biodynamic gardening starts with building truly healthy soil through thoughtfully integrating both plants and animals in the garden and creating fertility by rotating crops, growing green manures such as vetch or clover, and carefully composting plant waste, kitchen scraps and farm animal manures (such as chicken or rabbit) with the help of medicinal herbal preparations.

“It’s not just about what chemicals you can’t use but what you can actively do to create a healthy garden whole that sustains itself,” said Thea Maria Carlson, director of programs for the Biodynamic Association in Milwaukee. “And it works on any scale, even in a small space.”

The ideal biodynamic garden includes both plants and animals. A growing number of cities and suburbs now allow homeowners to keep small numbers of chickens, rabbits, beehives or even goats. But even without these domestic animals, creating a garden that attracts such common creatures as earthworms, bees, ladybugs, praying mantises, birds and other beneficial insects, including microbial ones in the soil, is something any small-scale gardener can do.

“There are different ways to balance plant and animal life with the garden,” Carlson said.

In a biodynamic garden, compost is treated with preparations made from fermented medicinal herbs, which enhance the nutrient availability and microbial activity in the compost, and in turn the garden soil. Six herbs are used to make the Biodynamic compost preparations: yarrow flowers, chamomile blossoms, stinging nettle, oak bark, dandelion blossoms and valerian flowers.

Read more: http://www.mnn.com/your-home/organic-farming-gardening/stories/biodynamic-gardening-takes-holistic-approach-to-the-soil#ixzz3gACtoWid

Images from google images search Biodynamic Gardening