WISDOM OF THE STAR MOON
CANCELED: January 18, 2012 9:30am-3:30pm
Jacobson Dude Ranch, Nevada City CA
Or
February 1, 2012 9:30am-3:30pm
Benziger Family Winery, Glen Ellen CA
Planting calendars which prescribe working with forces of the moon often combine several lunar influences into one simplified system. They use the moon phases, where the full and dark moon cycle dictates operations above or below ground. A more effective use of solar and lunar rhythms as a method for working with plants includes a second rhythm. Known as the “star moon”, this is the monthly cycle of ascending and descending forces of the moon which follows the annual movement of the sun above and below the equator.
This workshop will explore the rich potentials for using sun cycles, the star moon, and the moon phases when planning the year’s sowing, transplanting, cultivation and harvest activities. Bring a 2012 planting calendar!
SEX IN THE GARDEN
The Lower Plants
March 14 , 2012 9:30am-3:30pm
Fort’s Barn, Petaluma CA
Minerals and plants have structures with similar forms: granite faces exfoliate forming leaf-like structures; crystals “grow” from “seeds”; plants and minerals both originate from a water matrix. The commonality of mineral and plant forms can be used to understand plant evolution in a deeper sense. In this workshop, Steiner’s principle of the mineral-plant will serve as a background for understanding the evolution of spore bearing lower plants. As we model plant sequences in wax -- from single-celled organisms through algae, mosses, ferns and conifers--we will experience evolving plant forms as they moved from the water into the sunlight by internalizing water with the help of mineral formations produced in weathering rocks.
The Higher Plants
April 25 , 2012 9:30am-3:30pm
Fort’s Barn, Petaluma CA
The higher plants develop organs that allow each group to move further from life in the water: a persistent root, a complex vascular structure, the formation of leaf nodes and flowers, and the production of covered seeds. These general characteristics separate the lower from the higher plants. In this workshop we again use wax modeling exercises to construct sequences in plant evolution. Moving from the naked seeds of conifers to the development of male and female organs which separate seed-forming parts from pollen-forming parts, we end with the formation of an embryo within a seed. With insights gained in this process, we will look at the more unusual flower arrangements which lead to the highly evolved grains and the composites.