|
|
|
|
Breathing CyclesThis is where the moon’s arcs, the growing seasons, come in and what they are about. They enable us to know best when to apply the preps as well as cultivating the plants. I, and many of us who have been actually working biodynamically growing plants and garden, use the term “breathing cycles” as the most descriptive analogy for what our observations show us is happening. I am not saying the Earth literally breathes … I don’t know if she does or not … but what happens is best described as a sort of breathing process. There are three basic breathing cycles; two come under the aegis of the sun and one of the moon. · yearly, the Earth breathes in from the Autumn equinox to the Spring equinox and out from the Spring to the Autumn. · daily, the Earth breathes in from midday to midnight, and out from midnight to midday. · monthly, the Earth breathes in for approximately fourteen days and the out for the next fourteen. When the Earth is breathing in she’s drawing energy downwards, into herself, into the soil, nourishing the soil and the roots. When the Earth is breathing out she’s sending energy upwards and outwards, into the leaves, flowers and fruits of the plants. With all the cycles, if you want to work with the roots and soil it’s best done when the Earth is breathing in – drawing energy down into the roots and soil, anytime from midday to midnight on the daily cycle, though most of us won’t want to put up lighting just so we can do weeding at 11pm. This means that sowing seeds, planting and transplanting – all of which very much affect the roots of plants – are best done in the afternoon. This refers to all plants, not just plants we grow for their roots as all plants have roots and the roots are the plant’s basic means of getting food and water. Conversely, if you want to work with the leaves, flowers or fruits then it’s best to work when the Earth is breathing out, in the morning. At this time the Earth is pushing energy up into the parts of the plant above the ground and so helping these parts of the plant to respond well. Dead-heading, green-pruning, trimming, foliar feeding and such jobs will have a more marked and beneficial effect if done in the morning. Of course, in gardens, especially flower gardens, we can have plants that like to flower at all seasons of the year but there are always dormant times for plants, times when they regenerate and build up their strength for the next growing, flowering and fruiting season. · The yearly cycle is a sun cycle; it gives us the seasons. From midsummer to midwinter dawn gets gradually later each morning and dusk earlier until, at midwinter, the cycle changes so, from midwinter to midsummer, dawn gets earlier and dusk later. From midsummer and midwinter the sun rises lower and lower, until it sinks to its lowest point, its nadir, at midwinter. From midwinter to midsummer it rises higher and higher each day until it is at its zenith at midsummer. While the arcs are rising, getting higher in the sky each day, the Earth is “breathing out” – pushing the energy up through the parts of the plant above the ground. This is part of what sets seeds off to germinate and why germination is much stronger during spring and up to midsummer. While the arcs are getting lower in the sky each day the Earth is “breathing in”, drawing energy down into the soil and roots. We tend to prepare the ground for spring during this time of year, putting mulches on perennials, allowing the earth to regenerate before the coming growing season. NB the northern hemisphere’s in-breathing time is the southern hemisphere’s out-breathing …OK? · The daily cycle is also a sun-cycle and in many ways is very similar to the annual one, only this cycle goes from midnight to midday, and then from midday to midnight. Like the annual cycle, as the light increases from midnight to midday so the Earth is breathing out; and from midday to midnight, as the light decreases, the Earth is breathing in. · The monthly cycle is the Moon-cycle (hence the word “month”) covering her 27½ day period. For the first half of her monthly cycle she begins low and makes gradually higher and higher arcs each day for the first two weeks of her cycle. Then she turns about and begins to make lower and lower arcs across the sky each day for the second two weeks. The old almanacs called these “moon riding high” and “moon riding low”, referring to the arcs the moon travels across the sky not the phases of the moon! You can have a waxing, waning, full, quarter, sickle or gibbous moon in both rising and falling arcs as well as in any of the constellations.
As you see, the moon goes through each of the constellations, reflecting the energy of the constellation she is passing through back to the Earth. On the ascending arcs the Earth is “breathing out”, sending energy up from the soil through the parts of the plant above ground – the leaves, flowers and fruits. On the descending arcs the Earth is “breathing in”, drawing down energy into the soil and roots. It is this movement of the moon that gives us our sowing, planting, cultivation and harvest times each month for each type of plant we grow as our forebears knew from the almanacs they used. We sow, plant and transplant during the half of the month when the Earth is breathing in. We work with the top parts of the plant – leaves, flowers and fruits – when she’s breathing out. And we enhance this further by working with the part of the plant we are most interested in on the days when the moon is reflecting the energy relevant to that part. Just to get you thinking along these lines here is a table showing some of the plants that come under each of the elements …
Using the Star Calendar you can see at a glance which day is which, and which time of the month you are in, so it’s easy to sort out what you want to do and plan your gardening to take advantage of the energy. Of course, the list above is not conclusive, there are thousands of plants that we grow and some for more than one reason – e.g. holly in the table above that we grow for both leaves and berries – but I hope it has given you an idea of how to decide what day to work with a particular plant. Now, let me say this straight away … the sun is not going to fall out of the sky if you can’t plant your spuds on a root day, in the afternoon, in the relevant planting time for your hemisphere (NB everything reverses depending if you are in the northern or southern hemisphere!). Plants want to grow. They will do their best to germinate and grow even in dreadful conditions as you probably already know. Working with the star calendar helps them grow better. Not being able to work with the star calendar slows everything down somewhat and won’t give you the quality you would otherwise get. But the plants will still do their best to grow. If you couldn’t sow or plant on the right day then cultivate on it. Once those spuds are in then, on the next root day, in the afternoon and preferably in your “planting” season – i.e. when the earth is breathing in, when the moon is descending – then get your hoe out and run it between the rows. Hoeing moves the top earth gently, stopping the crusts forming on top of the soil that stop the water getting in and can encourage mould and fungal growth. And, doing this on the day relevant to the plant you’re growing (in this example, spuds) you encourage the plant to grow well. Biodynamics helps plants. It gives oomph to already good organic practice. But everyone knows there are some times when things just aren’t possible to do as you would like. So if, for some reason, Life gets in the way and you cannot always plant, cultivate or harvest or whatever according to the star star calendar don’t neglect the plants waiting for the “right day”, just get on like a good gardener and do what is needed as well as possible. Hoeing in the flower beds is just as helpful as it is in the veg beds. Weed seedlings germinate there just as well and need to be cleaned off so your flowers don’t have competition for the light, air and nutrients in their bed. Doing it on a flower day encourages the flowers and vegetables like broccoli. Doing it on a leaf day encourages the leaves of things like ornamental grasses and other foliage plants including variegated ones as well as leaf vegetables. Doing it on a fruit day encourages the fruits/seeds like spindles and holly berries and beans; you can use these days, too, with grasses that have beautiful seed heads you’d like to stand over the winter and things like ice plants with their lovely red-brown seed heads. As you become accustomed to working biodynamically you’ll find you get the hang of knowing what’s going on with the garden each day, week and season. And, knowing this, you can help that plant to do its thing better. Although using the horn silica (prep 501) is best done at dawn it’s still effective if you begin a stirring at say seven or even eight o’clock and get it onto the plants by eight or nine or even nine-thirty. So you can do it more often than you might fancy if it meant getting up before dawn every darn time. For your veg, and for the first stirring each season, I really do recommend the pre-dawn vigil, it does make a difference to taste, storing ability, quality, colour etc. But for further applications – and I always give the plants here at least two or three goes of 501 over the summer – a bit later won’t wreck the universe. Winter applications of 501 are quite feasible too although most BD books up to now haven’t encouraged them because they’ve all been written basically for vegetable growers and market gardeners. But I like to encourage the bulbs and hellebores in late winter for a Christmas showing or in early spring for other varieties; and the blossom trees like forsythia and Japanese cherries as well as the early spring flowers. This also means that dawn isn’t nearly so early! |
Send mail to
mad-hatter@yahoo.com with
questions or comments about this web site.
|
