Quick Look
Looks at the characteristics of seven common plants and the remarkable benefits they can bring to biodynamic and organic gardening and agriculture.
Description
Plants have many qualities which can be harnessed for use in health and beauty products. In biodynamic gardening and agriculture, one of the most important uses of plants is in spray preparations and in compost mixtures, where different plants can bring very different benefits.
This beautifully illustrated book looks at the qualities of seven everyday plants -- yarrow, chamomile, nettle, valerian, oak, dandelion and horsetail -- and shows how their nature and habits relate to the positive characteristics they can bring to biodynamics. It considers, for example, how the nettle with its almost geometrically-precise leaf growth and extensive dessicating root system can bring order to otherwise chaotic soil decay.
Illustrated with fifteen colour and over fifty black and white photographs and drawings.
Reviews
'Colourful paintings accompany each description [and] ideas are presented in a unique and very accessible way. All in all, this is an inspirational book that will be invaluable for students, newcomes and old timers in equal measure. It offers a well-grounded method for learning and at the same time awakens the artist in each of us. No other book about the preparations approaches the subject in quite this way.'
-- Bernard Jarman, Star and Furrow, Summer 2006
Author
Jochen Bockemühl worked for the natural science and agriculture department at the Goetheanum in Switzerland until his retirement in 1996.
Kari Järvinen was a professional gardener and now lectures in biodynamics at Snellman College in Finland.