Do you know the difference between humus and compost? I used to think the difference is pretty obvious. However, since this has become one of my favourite topics to read, write and talk about, I realised that it’s not that obvious at all! In popular English gardening literature the words are often used interchangeably. In German gardening books, the difference …
Humus, a brief History
The word humus has been known for more than 2000 years. The Roman poet Virgil (70 — 19 B.C.) used it in the sense of ‘earth’. Not much later the Latin-speaking people abandoned the term and replaced it with terra. This is still the common name for earth in Portuguese. In the 18th century, the word humus came back in …
Maye Bruce's Compost Preparation
Nearly 100 years ago, Maye Bruce, a gardener and founder member of the Soil Association in England, began to experiment with the plant preparations recommended by Rudolf Steiner for biodynamic agriculture. Because the biodynamic preparations were difficult to make for many gardeners, incuding herself, she developed her own recipe. The result is a homoeopathic preparation. It stimulates the decomposition process, …