18 February 2012

The Great Biodynamics Experiment Begins ........


Well, the time has finlly come to start my biodynamics experiment..... it's so exciting :-) For the record and before I start, I would just like to say that I'm not endorsing Jamie Oliver products, they were on special offer at my local garden center and I'm too much of a scrooge to pass up a bargain. I have also been collecting the wooden fruit crates for a few weeks now and had intended to use them as containers to grow things like salad leaves and strawberries, however, they turned out to be the perfect containers to try out these experiments. I realise that this might seem like an awful lot of trouble to got to just to grow some veg but I have been reading about biodynamics and there definitely seems to be something in it. Even the National Trust have started growing flowers and vegetables using biodynamic principles so if it's good enough for them it probably should be good enough for me and worth looking into further. The experiment part is purely selfish and having spent 4 years at uni studying environmental science and sustainable environmental management, the chance to do a little experiment satisfies my inner geek :-) . According to the calendar in my book "Gardening and Planting by the Moon 2012", today is apparently a fruit day and not a good day to be planting garlic, so today I will be planting some garlic. According to the calendar, tomorrow is a root day and ideal for planting garlic, so again, ....... I will be planting some garlic. The idea is that I will plant one lot of garlic today and one lot tomorrow to see which grows the best. I will be using compost from the same bag, garlic from the same batch and identical containers in the form of fruit crates from my local fruit and veg shop. I have intentionally opted for planting the non garlic day before the garlic day so any differences in growth can't be put down to the non-garlic day being after the garlic day and therefore having less time to grow (well it makes sense in my head even if it sounds nuts on paper) I will be doing this with various seeds throughout the year and I will be photographing the boxes each week and posting them here on my blog.
UPDATE: Yesterday I planted box number 2 of the garlic experiment. Yesterday was a root day so, in theory, it should mean that the garlic planted yesterday thrives better than the garlic I planted the day before, which was planted on a fruit day. I have been taking the boxes outside every morning so they get plenty of sunlight and rain and bringing them back inside in the evening so they aren't outside in the frost, so basically, watch this space ...........

1 comment:

  1. Hey Kay i'm right there with you. I agree while biodymamics sounds a bit cooky a lot of the experts at the major seed and plant suppliers seem to think that if you scratch the surface of biodynamics there is sound scientific theory behind it. Not looking forward to gardening in the dark though lol

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