Posted on Mon, Nov 30, 2009
Today (Sunday 29th November 2009), there is a door way in the 'heavans' when Venus is moving through Scorpio and the Moon is moving through Taurus. After some research by 2nd Year BD students they found that this is the best time indicated by Marie Thunn to burn pests (not weeds) that are causing trouble in the garden. Steiner indicated in the Agriculture, when Venus moves through Scorpio is the best time to carry out this preparation.
So you may be wondering what on earth am I talking about? I'm asking myself the same question!
In the Agriculture course Steiner indicated that if pests are burnt and the ashes spread in the areas effected a message is sent out which will deter the pest. This method can be applied to weeds, where you burn the seeds and in my case pests such as pigeons, rats and deer.
On Sunday I burnt Pigeon and Pheasant feathers and a skin of a deer. The ashes have been saved and I will distribute them when I see signs again of there unwanted presence in the garden.
This is a trial for me, I've never used peppers before and I'll test certain areas in the garden, in particular with the pigeons I can spread the ashes over one of the brassica crops and not on the other. In the case of the Pheasants I have noticed that a number of them are collecting near the lorry body in the garden in the morning and evenings, so I'll spread them there to see if it has an influence on where they rest. I don't regard the pheasant as a pest as such but they are visible so I can observe any change in habit. The deer are a little more complicated, because they only come to the garden in the evenings any change in pattern will be hard to observe, I will spread the ashes around the perimeter of the grounds to deter them from entering.
Click HERE for a link to a constellation clock and HERE for an explanation of all the planets symbols from the Indian Biodynamic association
Other than burning animal skins.... we have been trying to get some projects finished in the rather small gardening group I am working with at the moment. We realized today that we have started many projects and not finished so many. This week is the last week of there help as the next two weeks will be spent plucking Turkeys at Tablehurst farm next door (Poultry Pre-Sales Management), then it's the holidays... So soon..... gosh, but to be honest if the weather carries on like this we'll be lucky to get much done, there are puddles around most of our fruit bushes so working on that ground would be very unproductive, and digging in the rhubarb would not be wise either. So it's leaf raking and seed ordering until the new year....
I'm hoping it won't be that long though :o)
Posted on Wed, Nov 04, 2009
I'm having a successful week, there is progress in areas which have lately been running a bit slowly.
Firstly from last week, I have paid for the tractor in full now and am expecting a call anytime to arrange a time to deliver the machinery. The materials for building the lean to are here and I'm scratching my head about how to assemble it all, there are a few helpful folks around who are willing to show me how to build it, so i'm sure it won't take too long to put it all together.
I have also managed to get the new revised greenhouse application in, it's the fourth edition now. With a wildlife survey included and all in PDF format, this means that I don't have to send three or four copies of everything to the planners and instead send it all through an email, one of the joys of the modern world I guess, less paper and hassle over all, and I get a copy automatically so I don't need to remember to copy one for myself.
The pruning of the soft fruits has started with the students. It was a really cold afternoon but we got a bit done and everyone is learning and understanding what we are doing which is great. The blackcurrant's are a bit funny, some have very vigorous growth and others are rather dormant. To try and correct this we are hard pruning the slower ones to stimulate new vegetative growth and treating as normal the more productive bushes. A good dose of garden compost will be applied around the bushes and we will also loosen the soil to promote the root growth. An application of the cow manure preparation 500 will be used early on next year to stimulate the growth of the new shoots. We also have the gooseberries to prune soon, it'll be a new group by then; the task is much greater for the gooseberries, they haven't been pruned properly for several years now so there will be a lot of clearing and hard cutting, i'm sure we'll see the rewards in the spring though. But there's a long until then.....