Harvest Moon...
Harvest 🌓
Having just had the biggest super moon of the year at the end of January it inspired me to look into its influence on the gardening front. Spending more and more time outside digging and weeding as the days get longer it gave me the idea that maybe I should be adopting some celestial wisdom by taking a leaf out of the past. A time when wise old sages like Arthur Aristotle, founder of the veg patch, claimed that the moon was quite important and we should pay a little more attention to it.
The old theory goes like this....the moon has 4 phases during the calendar month and if you sow plants in the right lunar phase then they will grow stronger, be more productive, and in turn have more vitality and energy and resistance to pests.
Having not been born with ‘green fingers’ or a classic wispy beard my previous method of ‘bung stuff in and hope’ I felt, needed now to be addressed with these new revelations.
Around here they seem to pay attention to this ancient knowledge and using age old formulas passed down through generations, whether it be for pruning vines, planting crops or even having a haircut or having a party there is a way that has been adopted by many that follow some ‘earth rules’ so I have decided to give it a go too. If it was good enough for Pliney the Elder a few thousand years ago then it’s worth a try for ‘Gary the Trowel’, the new Arian Zodiac mind-warp moon-child of Cortona in 2018.
I browsed the ‘Old Farmers Almanac’, an impressive advisory resource and a leader in all things agricultural since 1792 and learnt that ‘leaf‘ crops need to be planted when the lunar cycle is a waxing ‘new’ moon and then ‘root’ crops go in after a ‘full’ moon when the moonlight decreases and before it starts to wane too much and this is when it’s good for the root growth. This ensures that seedlings get the benefit of the gravitational pull drawing up the water, increasing hydration at the right time and promoting healthy plants.
Ok, so that sounds simple enough and makes a fair bit of sense to me.
So lettuce have a look at the facts, stop ‘beeting’ around the bush and admit it’s thyme to turn over a new leaf....It could be complete claptrap, folklore or botanical boloney but modern science has not managed to disprove it yet. So armed with my new trusty ancient Etruscan ‘Moon gardening App’ I have calculated that if I dig my furrows at the right time my spuds will start to swell, my zucchini will reach a fine length and my prizewinning melons will be massive and be bursting with flavour in the coming months.
So as the werewolves start to howl and the suicide, arson and violent crime statistics rise, a shadowy figure will be digging furiously under the stars, backlit by the light of the silvery moon in a vain attempt to plant a few seeds that will lead to a bumper crop in the summer.
Neil Young’s ‘Harvest Moon’ was the obvious choice for this one!
Aries Traits: Enterprising, Incisive, Spontaneous, Daring, Active, Courageous and Energetic, the Aries are the proverbial infants, guileless and optimistic to the fault. However, they also are impatient, impetuous, vain, proud and egoistic”
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