Due to the unseasonably long, warm fall last year, master
gardener L.A. Rotheraine and the gardeners at Evergreen Elm had to
change their approach slightly this year when starting their
plants.

The group, however, is expecting the same phenomenal results
they have always had with their biodynamic gardens.

“The reason no agricultural university in the Western hemisphere
can compete against Evergreen Elm’s biodynamic gardeners within the
confines of McKean County,” Rotheraine said, is the spray they use.
While other gardeners use field spray only as a field spray,
Evergreen Elm uses it as a foliar spray as well. This, in addition
to the unorthodox way they use the biodynamic compost preparations
produces superior vegetation, Rotheraine said.

He went on to compare biodynamic gardening to modern
agriculture, emphasizing their incorporation of cosmic energy.

“The connection to the heavens is in the central stem of all
plants,” Rotheraine went on to say, referring to the stem as a
“cosmic pipeline,” or a “heavenly circuit.”

“The biodynamic preparations intensify this pipeline, thus
uniting the heavens with Earth in a very beneficial way,” he said.
“Agricultural science has forgotten that all plants are
materialized energy from stars and planets. It is common sense to
see that the sun, moon and all the stars have an effect on plant
life on Earth. As a photographer knows every light affects a
picture, every light in the sky would have to affect plant growth
to a greater or lesser degree.”

Referring specifically to the affect the strange weather last
fall had on gardening this spring, Rotheraine said the soil is much
dryer than it would normally be at this time of year.

“Therefore, we are using the unorthodox technique of using the
field spray as a leaf spray,” he said. By spraying the soil and
plants as they do, however, they are “actually changing the climate
conditions in the garden.”

Normally, they would use a combination of horn silica and
valeria flower concentrate for spray. Instead, they are using the
field spray – comprised of seven preparation components, what
Rotheraine refers to as “BD prep 500, 502, 503, 504, 505, 506 and
507” – exclusively this spring. Respectively, the substances are
horn manure, yarrow flowers, chamomile, stinging nettle, oak bark,
dandelion and valeria flowers.

It is not only the spray, however, that makes the garden so
successful, Rotheraine said.

“The enthusiasm of Evergreen Elm’s biodynamic gardeners becomes
an actual force just like our preparations do and has a tremendous
positive effect on the plants,” he said.

While some may debate the theory behind Rotheraine’s methods,
what cannot be refuted are his results. For years, the group has
taken dozens of blue ribbons at the McKean County Fair for their
fruits and vegetables. Rotheraine, Evergreen Elm and the biodynamic
gardens have also been featured on local television news and in
newspapers as far away as Michigan because of the unusually high
quality of their seed strains, plants and harvests.

“Until other gardeners and farmers use Evergreen Elm’s
biodynamic system, they will never achieve the results our
gardeners have accomplished,” Rotheraine said.

He seemed particularly pleased that master gardeners at two
Midwestern colleges, the University of Michigan and the University
of Wisconsin, are both currently experimenting with Evergreen Elm’s
methods. He is also hopeful that biodynamic gardening is becoming
popular worldwide, as they group has seen a large number of hits on
their Web site from Communist China.

“So, we’re putting some of our key articles in Chinese hoping
they will (use) the Evergreen Elm method of making seeds instead of
being swayed into genetically-engineered and terminator seeds that
the large corporations are trying to propagate throughout the
world,” Rotheraine said.

“If a seed strain is a replica of a particular cosmic
constellation, then genetically altering a seed makes it inferior,”
he said, compared to what it could be – “a heavenly image in the
form of a plant here on Earth.”

Evergreen Elm supervisor Brandi Buck said that not only do the
gardeners produce a spectacular garden, but the garden gives back
to its creators and keepers.

“There is a therapeutic aspect of gardening for the individuals
at Evergreen Elm,” Buck said. “It helps with aggression and
obsessive compulsive disorder,” adding the repetitious nature of
the tasks calms the clients at Evergreen Elm -ðan agency that
specializes in the care and therapy of those diagnosed with mental
health illness or mental retardation.

Some clients, due to their diagnoses, tend to binge eat, for
example. Tending the garden allows them to better understand the
nutritional value of what they are growing. It also helps with
finger dexterity, she said, as well as giving them a reason to be
outside getting exercise in the sunlight, which naturally combats
depression.

Harvesting the gardens and taking home all those blue ribbons
also fills them with a sense of pride and accomplishment, she
said.

“Each individual here can tell you what they do in the garden
and why,” Buck said. Some of the clients at Evergreen Elm have been
working with Rotheraine in the garden for decades, she added. “It’s
a huge benefit for them.”

More detailed information on biodynamic gardening can be found
at www.rotheraine.com.