The Gardener
Doing BD
Spray Preps
Compost Preps
Star Calendar
Making the Preps
Pests & Diseases
Pruning & Things

Moon as Lens The way we use the moon in BD is that we see her as a lens, focusing the energies of each of the 12 constellations onto the Earth each month as she passes through them. “Planting by the Moon” has become very much better known over the past ten years or so and many people think this is what biodynamics is. In fact, it’s only a part of the whole, a means of knowing when to do what. Also, in biodynamics we use much more than the phases of the moon. In fact, in the BD process, we don’t use the phases of the moon at all, we use another quality of the way the moon orbits the Earth, what used to be called in the old almanacs “moon riding high” and “moon riding low”. These are the way the moon rises and travels across the sky each night. They give us the Northern and Southern planting times.

NB - we don't use the Latin astrology names for the constellations because we try to keep focused on the stars in the sky and not on astrology. Biodynamics isn't astrology and doesn't use it. The star patterns in the sky are what we use - as seen from the Earth. Remember, if you were on Mars or Sirius or Alpha Centauri these patterns would NOT look the same - they are as they are because we see them from Earth.

Without the star calendar we wouldn’t know when to apply the preparations. The star calendar can appear confusing at first. And some biodynamic practitioners can get so wordy about astrological thingamajigs that it can boil one’s brain. You really don’t need to boil your brain to do biodynamics, it isn’t that hard and Steiner certainly never intended it to be! However, there are a few things to get your head around first so we’ll try to go slowly through them and make things as obvious as possible. You probably have some idea already as we’ve been talking about parts of the plant and what you want to enhance.

You use the star calendar to help with …

·        applying the preparations

·        Sowing – all seeds you start in pots, and/or soak in water as well as those you sow directly into the ground

·        Planting – including planting out annual and herbaceous plants either bought in from garden centres or grown on by you from seed or plugs; planting shrubs and trees from a nursery or plant centre; and planting out your vegetables after germinating them in pots

·        Cultivation – that’s weeding, thinning, pruning, feeding, etc

·        Harvest – i.e. cutting flowers, picking fruit and vegetables

Moon & Plants

As I said, the Biodynamic Star Calendar works with more than just the Moon but it is the Moon that focuses the energy. This is because she travels around the Earth once every 28-29 days and, in so doing, she passes in front of each of the constellations – see the diagram above.

As she passes in front of each of the constellations she collects the energy from the stars in that constellation and focuses it onto the Earth. She acts as a lens for collecting and focusing the energy of each constellation in turn onto the Earth. This gives the days when best to work with each element in the garden as each constellation carries the energy of one of the four elements – see the diagram below …

And these 4 elements, each carried by 3 constellations, affect and respond to a part of the plant – as in the diagram. In the star calendar each day has the moon in front of one of these constellations and so is called a Root, Leaf, Flower or Fruit day.

Calendars ...

All plants work best if planted and cultivated on the day which echoes the reason why we are growing them. So you need to get yourself a biodynamic growing star calendar.

Use the calendar that applies to your own time-zone, or Maria Thun's conversions from GMT. Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the USA all produce their own calendars. Stella Natura from the Josephine Porter Institute also has excellent articles in it.

I find Maria Thun’s the easiest to use so I will be quoting from it. Her approach is entirely practical and based on over fifty years of scientific observation. There are very many moon rhythms, something like over a hundred, a very complicated set of cycles that hasn’t been explored anything like fully as yet. So much we can have fun finding out over the coming years.

Basic Principles ...

The principles behind the star calendar are both complex and simple. The maths and astronomy (not astrology) are a bit complex for most of us, so thank goodness for Maria Thun and those behind her who are able to put it together so we don’t have to. But the basic concepts behind why such-and-such is a root day, or a flower day, are easy to grasp even for the lay person.

For instance, potatoes, carrots, beetroots, onions, swedes, parsnips etc are plants we grow for their roots. If you plant or cultivate them on a leaf, flower or fruit day they won’t be nearly so healthy, productive and tasty as they would if you worked them on a root day … as Maria found in her initial study with the radishes.

This is because the energy of the constellations isn’t right for them. You might find that they produced good foliage (leaf day planting) for instance and few or small actual spuds or carrots. If you cultivate them – i.e. weed, feed, thin out, prune – on a root day you’ll enhance their growing and produce better spuds and carrots. If you use another day they won’t be as good. This affects taste and scent as well as appearance, so cultivating your spuds on a root day makes them much tastier when you come to eat them. Similarly, harvesting – if you dig up your spuds on a root day they will store much better than if you dug them up on a leaf, flower or fruit day.

If you are working with leaf plants – hostas, lettuce, pulmonarias, cabbage, grasses, variegated ivy, herbs, etc – then you work on a leaf day.  If you are working with flowers for your borders and beds, and for eating – e.g. calendula, cauliflower, nasturtium, roses, iris, hardy geranium, clematis, mock orange, broccoli, day lily – then you want to work on flower days.  If you are working with fruits – holly, apples, spindle, Chinese lanterns, beans, raspberries – then you work on a fruit day.

You’ll see, in the Star Calendar, each day is marked as a Root, Leaf, Flower or Fruit day. This means that, on those days, the Moon is passing in front of an earth, water, air or fire constellation.

Root days are when it’s good to do anything connected with roots and/or the soil; sowing and cultivating plants which we grow for their roots, essentially root vegetables such as potatoes, carrots, beetroots. As all plants have roots these days can be used for anything to do with the roots of any plant, and rooting plants from cuttings too. And you can sow anything on a root day ... all plants have roots and need to grow them in order to live.

• It’s on Root days that we spray the horn manure preparation 500.

Leaf days are when it’s good to do anything connected with leaves. They are also good for sowing and cultivating plants which we grow fort their leaves such as Hostas, Pulmonaria, grasses, many trees & shrubs with beautiful leaves, as well as vegetables such as spinach, lettuce, cabbage. And the lawn.

• NB – if you mow the lawn on a leaf day you will encourage it to grow! If you mow it on a root day you’ll pull all that growing energy down to the roots (which helps the grass to stay healthy and combat drought as well) and the leaves won’t grow so fast … so you don’t have to mow so often!

Flower days are when it’s good to do anything to plants you grow for their flowers. They are also good for sowing and cultivating plants which we grow fort their flowers. Such plants might be all flowering perennials and annuals; flowering trees & shrubs like magnolia, roses and fuchsias; vegetables such as cauliflower, broccoli, nasturtiums.

• Some BD folk say they find cauliflowers do better if sown and cultivated on leaf days but my own experience is that I get better caulis from working them on flower days.

Fruit are days when it’s good to sow and cultivate plants which we grow for their fruit such as roses for their hips, crab apples, cotoneaster, firethorn, honeysuckles later in the year for their berries. Fruiting trees & shrubs, such as apples, pears, apricots, nut trees and bushes. Fruit such as raspberries, currants, strawberries. Vegetables such as beans, peas, tomatoes, peppers, courgettes.

• It’s on Leaf, Flower and Fruit days that we spray the horn silica preparation 501.

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Copyright © 2009 Elen Sentier   Last modified: 08/08/10