Perfect for the New Zealand gardener wanting to use a biodynamic moon calendar without getting overwhelmed by the details. Here’s a simple approach – start with the tasks most relevant to you and your garden for the month ahead.
To get the free download, head to:
https://blueborage.podia.com/gardening-by-the-moon-planning-tool
And now all the other links:
🌱 Book an hour long coaching session to plan your seasonal gardening tasks with a biodynamic moon calendar:
https://calendly.com/blueborage/coaching-session-with-katrina
🌱 the DIY Almanac for 2024 is here:
https://blueborage.podia.com/a731988f-b7de-4c6a-ba48-ab05996a0cd6
🌱 For the latest workshops, go to my Humanitix profile at:
https://events.humanitix.com/host/6045b0da174ffc000a8a4d22
🌱 Here’s the link for my Ko-Fi account, where you can purchase the monthly download as a simple pdf file to store on your phone as a handy reference. Consider a monthly subscription if you’d like to support the community projects.
https://ko-fi.com/blueborage
May’s download: https://ko-fi.com/s/e90b8c8275
If you’d like to work with me as a compost coach or consultant but your situation is hard to describe in an email, then I have appointments in my calendar for free 15 minute chats on Zoom, where we can talk through what a customised package could look like.
Book a spot here: https://calendly.com/blueborage/15min
All other information about Blue Borage can be found at www.blueborage.co.nz or you can send me an email at katrina@blueborage.co.nz
Happy garden planning!
Katrina
hello and welcome to Garden planning
with a biodynamic moon calendar for May
2024 my name is Katrina wolf my business
is blue barage and this is hopefully a
guide to help people in New Zealand plan
their late Autumn gardening tasks so
it’s always with these monthly overviews
I recommend you start with your goals
for the garden this month hopefully
you’ve got some goals for the garden for
the year and halfway through the year
um hope you’re tracking well if you’re
not then um I hear a lot of people
talking
about um slowing down for winter or not
planting a winter garden and I guess I’m
lucky that because I’m self-employed I
can plan to be outside at the warmest
part of the day but even if you only
have a weekend to focus on your
gardening I think there’s so much that
is possible in a lot of New
Zealand winter
climate so um if it’s helpful then go
check out this monthly Garden planning
tool it’s a free download or you can
just copy those headings make up your
own headings and I encourage you to do a
monthly reflection of how things are
going so key dates for May from the
biodynamic moon calendar we’ve got full
moon on Friday the 24th new moon on
Wednesday the 8th moon opposite Saturn
is Friday the
17th and then we start the month with 11
days and the descending period then
we’ve got ascending from the 11th to the
26th and then back to sending for 5
days and then the nodes are on the 6th
and the 20th so if that’s all you need
to plan your gardening tasks then you’re
welcome to click out here it’s hopefully
just a couple of minutes it’s taken me
to get to that point and um you get out
in the garden as soon as possible if you
would like to download that PDF that
I’ve created there then that is over in
my cofi shop so you can go load that up
on on your phone as home screen on your
computer or print it out and add to a
garden
manner so from here on in let’s look
at the blue barage projects so these are
the same seven Gardens are slightly
different to last month so the top left
of soil Farm is gr live two and a half
years ago when I moved here it was just
a pic bottom left is Turco Museum uh so
I think that was almost 2 years no a
year and eight months that I saw in the
state and said please please please can
we stop spraying glyphosate and I would
love to plant a pollinator Garden here
top right is the inner city restaurant
herb garden oh I’ve got the wrong image
on this
slide um so this is the French cafe on
Simon Street and then under that I’ve
got Toco library with the courtyard bu
it out a Community Hall which is very
close to where I live I would love to
use it as a venue regularly and have the
Y cut or District Council caring for the
entire premises without any toxic weed
killers then at the bottom is Hazel’s
Garden that’s um the house my daughter
Jess is renting and then bottom right
this is a new picture here where I’m
actually looking at Turco Bol and how
can I help people who live in this area
businesses that operate in this area to
be fully circular and learn how to
compost everything possible on
site so uh a few pictures from the month
top left the soil Farm all the flowers
the daers have been such a joy absolute
Joy bottom left uh the
museum is um
the the weeds are feeding the
pollinators more than the flowers the
daers are pretty much finished top right
the inner city restaurant herb garden um
this is the French cafe with their new
restaurant anise which is modern Asian
Cuisine and so I’m looking at their menu
and going how do we bring this to life
in a garden and so they got a brand new
ca lime tree last
month um then down the bottom um not
much action on fata Community Hall at
the turo library I am popping up today
I’m recording this Monday the 22nd of
April so the school holiday program is
at the library today and I want to go
have a look at the worms with the
children and the
Librarians um bottom left Hazel’s Garden
it’s nearly exam season and J is um
booking flights for me to come down and
help look after Hazel so that she can
study um and then bottom right to a
poono uh at the moment
the um composting that I’m doing is
actually uh leaf mold and garden waste
and food scraps for the French cafe and
another event which might be on the
screen here so uh Chef’s Table was a Kai
Franklin event and oh my goodness so
yummy so so yummy four different cafes
restaurants each
supplied one dish of the meal and it was
set up like a banquet dinner for over
100 people and I got all the food scraps
it was only 17 lers in the end and most
of that was from the banana leaf that
was under the beef cheek main
dish um okay on the left there those the
notes I made this time last month with
my gold for April and down the bottom
end of month Reflections I got all those
biodynamic
preparations made and in the ground so
happy with myself uh the leaf mold
processes are all nicely sorted so
that’s ticking along and the daili is I
got half of them labeled I think I got
photos of every single daer
blower these are the biodynamic
preparations so how many horns did I get
1 2 3 4 5 6
7 and the manure was from a bodic farm
just south of Hamilton I’m so so happy
it’s like dream come true I got to go to
a biic PR making day in newstead um if
you would like
to learn when the next preparation
making is happening it’s it could be
spring when we dig everything up and um
do get in touch uh then the
505 um the one at the bottom that’s the
dandelion preparation 506 um bottom
middle that is oh um yo 50 no it’s not
the
arrow that’s the chamomile and that’s
actually um that’s not here at the soil
Farm that’s a photo I took at the prep
making day and then over on the right
this is the equisetum that I’m making to
add into a tree paste so we did some or
mine and RAR did some pruning in the
Orchard and my peach trees got some
pruning done and anytime we’re doing
some major cutting I get that bi denamic
tree paste onto the cuts and I’ll
probably do another tree paste during
winter um an equisetum is really good as
a preventative measure against fungal
diseases some other highlights the month
um with the days getting shorter if I
wake up and it’s dark and I’m bored and
I I can’t eat breakfast until the sun
comes up because of my human design uh
primary health system on a daylight
eater then I
am B around and I’ve started doing some
agne hotra ceremonies just to mark that
first moment of of Sunrise with the
first light of the day so the acne hotra
is calure with ghee and a rice offering
um and once the fire is going add the
rice then there’s a mantra that gets set
as a sort of a morning or evening
blessing at sunset and sunrise um this
is a yellow Admiral butterfly it’s on uh
some basil mint but I’m taking this as a
sign that my nettle is a um
is known to the local Admiral
butterflies which is so cool uh at the
moment I’m eating fos most days on the
right this is food scraps from the
French cafe in the city and aren’t they
just so pretty like the shapes that they
cut it’s just such a buzz um bottom in
the middle this is the very end of
Sophie’s tomato harvest in St Luke’s
sandrian so I brought all the Tomato Vin
home and am making compost with them and
the other picture here these DW drops
this is another sort of morning
meditation inspired by a conversation
with James Milton who I’m thinkers
crossed I’m hoping to get on to zoom to
do a bit of an interview that I’ll
upload to Youtube so stay tuned for that
this was um the last day I saw Sophie
before she set off for her new job in
Sydney and so I made my annual pumpkin
pie treat and um yeah we had a lovely
afternoon tea
together another highlight of the month
was he the indigenous seed soil food
sovereignty Symposium and I have been in
the same room as vanana Shiva it was um
it was a wonderful three
days and next up here is a um a cool
collaboration coming up in May with uh
Michael Dar who owns B
so this is uh one of his restaurants in
the middle of the city in wyard
quarter so he now has a carbon cycle
compost box and stalled by Richard and
Teresa there’s a Tim on the right here
who also works for carbon cycle
composting and we are doing a fun
promotion for bedi and the Grove
customers so stay tuned for that also
coming up in May is organic week from
the first to the 7th and I’ve been
invited to talk about composting on the
evening of the 6th of May this is for
organic week uh free event so you can go
to the organic week Facebook page or
check their emails go to their website
and register for that and then rolling
on from that will be or overlapping with
it is international compost awareness
week from the 5th to the 11th I haven’t
quite decided what I’m doing for that
week but it’ll probably
enclude the bedi promotion and I would
love to do a 500 store downtown
somewhere so goals for the month um here
at soil Farm do a 500
store really want to make some 503 the
chamomile preparation and I’m trying to
find a source of bulk organic camar
flowers um
having filled my horn
with this beautiful
biodynamic calure from a biodynamic
dairy farm it’s like oh I want to find
some organic C in your clust to home um
French cafe I’m still waiting to see if
I can use the space for Wonderland
Garden coaching if so then I’ll host
regular CPP stes there and just to cut
down on my travel I am ready to find an
assistant Gardener to do some of the
sweeping watering tidying
um but
under uh my supervision so that I can
maintain the biodynamic protocols if you
know someone who would be interested
please get in touch it is a PID roll and
they would be an independent contractor
and the one um not condition but the one
um feature
that may be offputting for some people
is there is a beehive in the middle of a
garden and um I sit with the bees for
five minutes before I start gardening
and I’m very aware of how I move around
the gardens so that I’m not crossing
their flight path I have not yet been
stung and I’m nervous around bees but I
know some gardeners who
um have
refused to work in that
environment um on we go to Circular too
project I would love to create a blue
barage uh guide for worm fing for the
Librarians to hand
out and then F out at a community Hall
make leaf mold I haven’t actually been
up um so I need to kind of scheduled
that into my week because the oak trees
will be dropping huge amounts of leaves
my focus is starting to sort of head
down to Hazel scen and um I’ve got the
AY denan weather forecast on my phone so
know I’ll swipe over and see what
clothing I’m going to need to pack to
head down there it’s so much
colder um but while I’m down there I
would love to look at uh composting
opportunities for student Flats so last
trip I was down that way I got a tour of
the University campus spoke with the
head of the sustainability department
and I’ll go pick up that conversation
again over to the right hand side the
museum pollinator Garden I do need help
with weeding uh we’ve got so much
compost to make and kiwi rail are
waiting for a blog post summarizing um
the approach that I’ve taken and so
fingers crossed that once I have that
blog written I can start to get into
conversation with someone who might come
up and have a look at what we’re doing
take some photos and there could be a
project who knows we’ll see too Township
um Richard and Theresa from carbon cycle
compost uh coming out for a tour
and I would love for us
to uh help businesses schools Community
groups home gardeners lifestyle block
owners anyone who wants to learn how to
compost we we could be fully circular
and so with the shadow Center I will
invite them to uh the zoom presentation
that rich and Teresa will give on
composting so everything’s kind of
ticking forward bit by bit by bit but in
terms of taking those tasks
[Music]
and uh planning what to do when with the
biodynamic
calendar um
let’s see I’m going down to denan at the
end of the month so this there’s very
little Point planting seeds to then
leave today so in May I won’t be seed
sewing in the as ending
period um I’ll probably scatter some
flower seeds through the garden and up
at the
Museum um bum so starting the month with
Organic week and then International
compost Awareness Week
uh that 500 St I do want to schedule for
the descending period so that’s going to
have to be some time between the 1st and
the 11th it’ be kind of cool to make it
the Saturday the 11th at the end of the
descending period and make that the end
of the bedy promotion but we’ll we’ll
see what happens um so that 11th of May
is also the final Autumn prep making um
I mean a lot of times I have still done
some prep making early in June that for
your garden if you’ve still got a few
things to do in that last part of May
we’re back in the descending period from
the 26th onwards then I think that’s
still
Autumn okay what else have we got here
um I’m going to do two Museum workshops
so Thursday the 16th and Sunday the 19th
so that’s sort of the uh chance to get a
lot of Tidy Up done so that I can then
go away
babysitting and then I’ve got my DIY
Alman calls if you would like to join
the DIY Alman program then once a month
kind of around the full moon when um
energy is high then we do Saturday
morning and Sunday evening Zoom calls
with reflection questions where you can
kind of check in and see how you going
with your plans for the
year so that is it may
summarized and um if you’ve watched this
far thank you for your attention I hope
it helps see that even if you’re a
relatively lazy Gardener like me uh or
you don’t have much time for your garden
that by chipping away a little bit each
month then over the course of the year
you can get a lot done and as always if
you would like help planning your
gardening tasks please reach out by
email Katrina bl.
C.N or head to my website and you should
find all the links there otherwise the
description under this video will have
more links um of the different downloads
and online programs so happy gardening
and thanks thanks for being here