Coming to the end of my second season gardening for the most part biodynamically, I find I’m observing nature’s rhythms far more closely. It will take a third year before the preparations have taken full effect and my plot’s conversion from organic to biodynamic will be complete, but recently I have started to sense that it’s well on the way, that the soil is becoming healthier, its life force getting stronger.
I knew the theory that for the speedy germination of seeds, they should be sown shortly before a full moon, but last Wednesday, not quite two days after a full moon, I couldn’t fail but be convinced. A raised bed mulched three weeks previously with homemade compost had turned from dark brown to green overnight. Weed seeds, insufficiently cooked so they had survived the composting process (the heap was too small and built too slowly) had obviously held out for optimal conditions, then germinated simultaneously, carpeting the bed in thousands of pairs of diminutive leaves. It could not have been due to an earlier lack of soil moisture - hardly a problem this year, you’ll agree! Whilst appreciating that my composting skills hold room for improvement (I’ve high hopes for the last three heaps that I’ve built and are 'cooking'), I was delighted to witness at close hand the surge of vitality, and taking my hoe, stirred the new life back into the soil, ready to nourish oriental greens that I want to grow instead.
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