Reverence, Obedience, and the Invisible in the Garden by Alan Chadwick

English-born Alan Chadwick was considered by E. F. Schumacher to be the greatest gardener in America. Chadwick was an early force in the reintroduction of organics into horticulture, creating gardens of exquisite beauty and fertility in the 60’s and 70’s. He restored ancient methods of fully conscious gardening, which were originally alchemical. Through his deep connection to Nature, coupled with his tutorship under Rudolf Steiner and studies in some of the great gardens of Europe, Chadwick developed what he called the ‘biodynamic French intensive system’. In these lyrical talks, transcribed from taped lectures given to his students, the practical aspects of gardening, such as composting, irrigation, seeds, raised beds and bloom, are shown to have a spiritual substratum. Chadwick was a practicing Shakespearian actor, a painter, a musician, a mythologist and a storyteller, and brought all these parts of himself into the creation of what he considered the greatest art: becoming a simple gardener. These inspired transmissions from Alan Chadwick bring the reader closer to the living presence of Nature. Talks on the Biodynamic French Intensive System “Gardening, for Chadwick, is first and foremost an arena for transformations. Transformation is the dream and the duty of the alchemist. The alchemist is servant of the coming dawn who labors to hasten the day when man ends his sojourn of folly and returns to Paradise renewed. It is a noble theoria that Chadwick has and it is perfectly wed to his extraordinary command of horticultural technique. The horticulture of Alan Chadwick speaks for itself. It is an eminently rational, logical, clean system of high yielding optimum organic gardening of unsurpassed simplicity and productivity. It is also an expression of a sublime vision coming out of a deep and ancient tradition of which this man of the soil was an unlikely representative.” -From the Introduction by Dr. Rodney Blackhirst