Moon Gardening

by Constantine

There has been a resurgance of interest in the lunar cycles lately. Reminds me of a conversation I overheard my mother and my aunts having when I was a child where one aunt confessed that she used the lunar cycles to chart out when to wean her baby. Out of sheer curiosity, I did some hunting around on the net and found only a few sites about weaning babies (most were written for farmers asking when to wean calves) but I did find some articles and sites about gardeners who use the phases of the moon to their advantage. Seeing as how this is the time of year when people start to plan out their gardens, I included the basics and a link for more information.

The basics are:

• From the first quarter through to the full moon – this is when you can concentrate on above the ground growth, the fruiting type of plants such as tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, legumes etc.

• From the full moon through to the last quarter – now is the time to be focusing on root crops such as radish, carrots, potatoes etc. as well as bulbs, biennials and perennials
  
• In the last quarter through to the new moon – Do Not Plant! You can either take the week off or spend your time weeding, tidying and mulching. [source]

If you want to get into even more detail, there are monthly charts that give you which sign the moon is in for each day. Planting when the moon is in water and earth signs ideally, and weeding or pruning during fire and air signs.
The best bet would be to order an almanac or calendar, for those of us that are not astrologers.

| 01/29/07 | Practices