Wolf D. Storl - Culture and Horticulture: The Classic Guide to Biodynamic and Organic Gardening

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Copyright 1979, 2000 by the Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association, Inc. Revisions 2013 by Wolf D. Storl. All rights reserved. No portion of this book, except for brief review, may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout the written permission of the publisher. For information contact North Atlantic Books.

Culture and Horticulture: The Classic Guide to Organic and Biodynamic Gardening is sponsored by the Society for the Study of Native Arts and Sciences, a nonprofit educational corporation whose goals are to develop an educational and cross-cultural perspective linking various scientific, social, and artistic fields; to nurture a holistic view of arts, sciences, humanities, and healing; and to publish and distribute literature on the relationship of mind, body, and nature.

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The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

Storl, Wolf-Dieter.
Culture and horticulture : classic guide to organic and biodynamic gardening / Wolf D. Storl.
p. cm.
Classic guide to biodynamic gardening
Summary: First published in 1979, this work is a classic of organic gardening, exploring soil fertility, harvesting and storage, and many other aspects of biodynamic gardeningProvided by publisher.
Includes bibliographical references.
eISBN: 978-1-58394-568-1

1. Organic gardening. I. Title. II. Title: Classic guide to organic and biodynamic gardening.

SB453.5.S86 2013
635.0484dc23

2012026214

v3.1

To the memory of Robert Elbers of Warmonderhof, Holland

The rushes daily grow taller,

Apricot blossoms daily more lush.

As an old farmer, I enjoy the view;

Everything I do according to the seasons.

I rise early to feed the cows,

Then yoke a pair to farm in eastern acres.

Earthworms crawl in and out of the ground,

Field crows follow me around.

In flocks they peck and cry,

as if to tell me of their hunger.

My heart is full of compassion

Looking at this, I pity both them and myself.

I give my food to the crows;

At dusk I return with an empty basket.

My family greets me with mocking smiles;

But never would I have changed my mind.

Chu Kuang-hsi, sixth century

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

. General outlay of the medieval system of land usage

. Christ appears as a gardener

. Meganthropus

. Mycorrhizae and root tubercles

. The four elements personified

. The four elements

. After Barthelemy de Glanvilles Le Proprietaire des Choses, 1487

. Etheric formative forces

. Sulphur, mercur, and sal in a plant

. The fiat

. The seven planets with their signatures and correspondences

. Correspondences in the super-sensible world and super-natural world

. Bent oak and pines

. Goethes Ur-plant (after original drawing by Goethe)

. Expansion and contraction

. Egg, blastula, and gastrula

. We can see in the plant a macrocosmic inverse image of the human being.

. Instreaming forces, the macrocosm, and the microcosm

. Chaos and cosmos

. Earth and Cosmos as sun and moon from the Rosary of the Philosophers or Rosarium philosophorum, 1550

. Soil horizons

. Light soils and heavy soils

. pH scale

. Half-finished double dug bed

. Composition of soil

. Barrel of elements

. Nutrients and leaves

. Pseudo cabbalism

. Van Helmonts experiment

. NPK in the plant

. Cosmic influences

. Geocentric point of view

. Curvature of the waxing and waning moon

. Flower clock

. Sidereal cycles and plants

. Examples of phyllotaxis (leaf arrangement)

. Paths of planets in plant structures

. Planetary influences on different types of plants

. Plants as projections of cosmic forces

. Waxing and waning moon effects on plant growth

. Trigons formed by the sidereal moon

. The signs of the zodiac

. Four elements and three factors

. Microclimates according to the suns path

. Heat at different times of the day

. Effects of wind on a garden

. The Wheel of Life

. Carbon-nitrogen ratios in compost material

. Compost heaps

. Animal manures and plant growth

. Light and heavy elements in compost

. Profile of compost in Stage I

. The archetypal brassica

. Grasshopper

. The gardening year

. Early garden bed

. Hot bed (side view)

. Winter tree trimming

. Compost preparation spray

. Cosmic energies in food

. Witlof box

. Food continuum

. Using empty hot beds to store food

. The distant and nearer planets seen in their geocentric and heliocentric orbits

FOREWORD BY LARRY BERGER

O ur small Oregon campus was all abuzz with the rumor that the school had hired a Hells Angel to teach anthropology. On first meeting Wolf I expected such, but as he approached me I could see his beard waving in the wind yet he sported no black leather jacket or wild tattoos. Although he may have looked to be a natural riding a Harley, Wolf seemed more like a large, wise and gentle gnome than a biker.

It so happened that Wolf lived close to the campus and often he would be seen out digging up his yard. Soon several rows of raised beds were formed and out burst an array of vegetables, some of which had never been seen before in these parts. Interest quickly spiked in Wolfs unique garden and a Saturday morning class at the college was arranged. The class became so popular that if you didnt arrive soon enough you either had to sit on the floor or stand because the chairs were all taken. It was through these classes that this book came to be.

While most of us were there for the basic info like the where, when, and how to plant what, there were excursions to Wolfs garden a short walk away for that. We were given plenty of practical hands-on experience through turning compost piles, making manure teas, and thinning rows of witlof and fennel. We relished working in the deep dark tilth of the garden beds. This was not often experienced in the mountainous terrain of southern Oregon. We learned that the fertility of the soil did not have to be measured with lab tests but could be intuitively felt through ones fingers and that if you give the soil the proper blend of organic compost your garden will flourish.