Alan Chadwick at the Urban Garden Symposium,1974, Part 2
The Vision of Biodynamics
See here for an Introduction to Alan Chadwick's Lectures and a Glossary of Terms
Back to the Urban Gardening Symposium Video Index Page
Contents of this Segment:
Questions posed to Alan Chadwick:
"Do you plant seeds by the moon?"
"I always plant potatoes on Good Friday, does that have anything to do with the moon?"
"Is there a book which spells all this out [the techniques of biodynamics]?"
"How do you do keep deer and gophers out of the garden?"
"What do you do to control snails?"
"Is there any harm in using horse manure in the garden?"
"What is the white powder that we saw in the film that was shown?"
"Is the procedure of planting by the moon highly complex?"
(12:49)
Full Text of this Lecture:
Alan Chadwick Lectures at the Urban Garden Symposium in 1974, Part 2
The Vision of Biodynamics
"Do you plant seeds by the moon?"
I couldn’t think otherwise. The ancient Chinese five-thousand years [ago] did. And as the planetary system is a participation of the whole law of nature, the whole world of plants and of moisture is responsive to the cycles of the planets. There can be no question of the matter. "Yes" is the answer. And transplanting with the declination of the moon, and the sowing of seeds with the inclination of the moon in conjunction with the inclination and declination of the Sun.
"I always plant potatoes on Good Friday, does that have anything to do with the moon?"
I’ll have to look it up. [?] It is essential to work out a mathematical table of the propagative period of the seed or plant that you are operating with. You have to remember that the inclination of the sun makes a variation of the propagation of the seed, as well as the moon. The moon influence is eight ninths, and the sun influence is one ninth, as an approximation.
"Is there a book which spells all this out [the techniques of biodynamics]?"
Is there a book by which you could be a master painter? And is there a book by which you could be a master musician? And here we’re dealing with the law of God… Total... How could there be?
“They could make an almanac, couldn’t they?
Yes, they could. They could. I will tell you that Mssrs. Dutton, of New York, are demanding this and keep writing letters, but it hasn’t got anywhere. We feel that—to tell you the truth in answer to that—we feel that, at the moment, we have an enormous number of student apprentices who are studying the whole of this system, the technique, working on the land with us, to become teachers, managers of this system. We feel that our focuses should be given to these people, that they should pass it on as all real matters are passed on [taught directly through word and action].
Are fairy stories ever really written? They cannot be written. So there is no book. I feel that if there were a book, you would have to spend your whole life reading it. Then you wouldn’t get into the garden at all.
As regards relationships and dis-relationships of plants, insects, deep-rooteds, shallow-rooteds, the different constitutions of soils, the effects of herbs in the manufacture of compost for the soil as individuals, the effect of numerous composts and suchlike matters and fertilizations, yes, there could indeed be an almanac. And I think it very probable that even certain almanacs are beginning to come out now. However, you have to realize that when there has been a huge commercial, industrial theater, the only thing known today are the photographs of sixty-ton machines, and of chemical residues. Therefore the other has been overlooked. It has to come back with a new wave.
"How do you do keep deer and gophers out of the garden?"
Welcome them with a back view. Yes, there are endless controllers. There are endless controllers. The deer cannot tolerate certain plants, if you use them either as hedges or plants. You also have to realize that out of the whole of this matter, of herbal and plant relationship and dis-relationship, you cannot think of it as the use today of medical syringes that give you a cure for your immediate complaint and produce three more. You have to realize that it is a slow procedure of bringing about change. That at no time do you destroy because you cannot understand. Therefore you bring about the usage of plants, Euphorbia is one, Ricinus is another. If you plant a hedge of… What is it? Pyracantha. I can’t think of what you call it… the common name for Pyracantha? (from the audience: We call it Pyracantha) ...fire thorn... Now if you make a hedge of that… There is also in California a wild deer plant that no deer will either go through or touch. All of these matters used as hedges. Also you do know that noises frighten deer more than most other matters. Also they cannot stand the smell of bone-meal. Use a little bone-meal over the plants. It will prevent them from eating it for some period.
Now, the major factor in that is this, that if you have what is called “troubles,” you must—and this is what I suggest to everyone who is concerned in the matter. We want more deer. We want more birds. We want more insects, more butterflies. They’ve been eradicated. We want them back by the millions. They are the constitution of soil and air and growth of understanding... of the happiness of children. You must feed, outside your garden, in the lea areas... You must feed and grow plants for the deer. If you grow mulberries near your raspberries, the birds will be so occupied with the mulberries that they won’t be interested in the raspberries; they prefer them. And likewise, when you grow Sonchis, when you grow Senecio, and all of the plants such as Hierachium that the birds love, they will come and they will eat the seeds. And those are the particular birds, such as all the finches, the bulfinches, the warblers, and particularly the goldfinches, they will all come and also look after the balance of the whole of the insect world.
We have no capacity of looking after a balance of the insect world. You either wipe it out with deadly poisoning… And, after all, there is no such thing as “weed-killer” there is only “plant killer.” It’s a complete hallucination. If not “plant killer,” then “plant wounder,” if you like, “soil destroyer.” So the great thing is that if you can't totally prevent the entry, grow some stuff outside that the deer love and keep them busy. Does that give you some reasonable answer?
"What about gophers?"
Gophers are the utmost ease to control. Now the gopher is antique [ancient]. You cannot tell it that it’s got to go and live somewhere else because it’s got nothing to do with such a matter. It says, “I know before you do.” If you want immediate removal, Sambucus, which is Elderberry, stuffed down their runs will completely stop them from reusing them. Now, you’ve got to find your boundaries where they come in. Also, if you can’t find Sambucus and don’t want to find Sambucus, even you could go to the Camphor tree and suchlike. Euphorbias, more than those do. Any of the Euphorbias grown will begin to stop the gophers from traveling.
The Spanish brought the Belladonna lily because the gopher ate the Cimithus of California, that beautiful wild lily of California. And the Spaniards brought all the grapevines, as you know. And the gophers ate the grapevines and the Spaniards were very angry, as Spaniards can be. They sent back to Europe for the big Belladonna lily, which is extremely poisonous, and planted it all in the orchards. That’s why you see these pink lilies blooming in July all over the place in orchards and vineyards. And it’s very strange, but the Spaniards did it. And of course the gopher thought it was the Cimithus, or didn’t know the difference, or didn’t know what a Belladonna is, and of course became very, very ill and had indigestion and took to hospital.
However, Euphorbias are a huge preventative of the traveling of gophers in your garden. There are also endless other methods. You also understand that in a talk, a discussion like this here today, I can hardly nominate you twenty herbs that will bring about the control, but if you want it, or would care to be so diligent as to write me a letter, I will indeed send you an endless list and promise that they will be effective, and they would. Snakes you realize are very important in this. Snakes are huge controllers of gophers.
"What do you do to control snails?"
There are endless, endless, endless interrelationships of planting that will completely control your snail problems: the whole family of Thymus, the whole family of Allium, again the Euphorbias and the inter-plantings and interrelationships of planting in this matter. The use of, again, livestock. If you have had an outbreak of snail or slug and they’ve laid eggs all over the place, when your crops are coming to a close, put… build pens upon those beds and run ducks or geese or chickens. If you don’t or can’t run ducks, geese or chickens, use live lime as a dressing in the Fall, leave it for three days upon the soil and it will eradicate the whole matter.
There are endless other answers to it which are much more efficient, but they are more long term. Again, any letter to us on such a subject will, I promise you, receive an answer. Proper, excuse me, proper cultivation of your soils, the keeping of cultivation going, should also keep them down, and with the proper procedure of layout of your garden, with these areas of inter-plantings, will definitely control it. But at no time, I would suggest, should you consider having a garden without slugs or snails. I command [assert] that if you grew lettuce in the desert, that you should have slugs, and if you don’t find a slug in your lettuce bed somewhere, you’d better not eat them. [because, if there are no insects, the plants are probably not being grown organically.]
"Is there any harm in using horse manure in the garden?"
Yes, there is. There is considerable open discussion on the subject such as all types of manures, but generally speaking, the interesting point is that you realize that even Pliny spoke of horse, and what you call it, animals that you use for pulling. Their manures are the weakest and poorest of all. Cat manures and dog manures are essentially not suitable.
"What is the white powder that we saw in the film that was shown?"
For slugs? Oh, here? I would imagine—I didn’t watch the film—I imagine that it was bone meal. It is a fertilization. In many soils that are lacking in calcium... The soils of California have any amount of limestone in them, and you don’t need lime at all. But the calcium of bone meal is living [?].
"Is the procedure of planting by the moon highly complex?"
Not at all, the whole system of planting with the moon is as simple as ABC. It is extremely simple. If you get a farmers almanac, believe it or not, the whole focus of the thing is written there. You just study the inclinations of the moon. There are twelve inclinations in the year. If you study your plants a little bit it takes absolutely no [?]. I assure you, I am an ignoramus and a nincompoop and I understand it quite well.
I assure you it is very easy. Don’t imagine that it is difficult. Look at the sky and the rising moon, and sow your seeds. And you’ll find it works. Look at the sky when the moon is going down, smaller and smaller, and sow your seeds and you won’t get any germination.
Good.