October news

In the cycle of the year we’ve just passed the Celtic festival of Samhain which is halfway between the Autumn Equinox and the Winter Solstice. This marks the ending and the beginning of the Celtic year and is the beginning of the deepest, darkest part of the year.

This is the time that nature starts to digest and assimilate the past year’s exuberant growth; when the leaves and plants return to the earth, creating the soil fertility for next year’s growth.

In the Weleda garden we tune into nature’s big recycling rhythm, by spreading our precious home-made compost where we want to grow healthy plants next season – here’s the team preparing the ground for next year’s Calendula crop.

And here’s Al stirring our Biodynamic Barrel Preparation which we then sprayed on to every square metre of our land at Weleda. This preparation helps the soil to digest and assimilate all of the dead leaves, the decaying annual plants and all of the compost that we’ve scattered on the land, helping the soil fertility to build, ready for the following year.

This is also a good time to digest and assimilate the year’s events and experiences, not only on the land but also in our lives… a time for inner reflection and connection with our own inner wisdom and our own personal growth.

Here in the Weleda gardens, the long-lasting autumn colours have been glorious as the leaves have seemed very reluctant to actually let go of the trees! But the cold and dark nights are creeping in and the wildlife in the garden is starting to think about hibernation. We try to provide as much suitable habitat for as many different creatures as possible, which is why we don’t over tidy the gardens at this time of year and why we’ve created insect hotels and hedgehog homes.