Tip-Sharing Tuesday: Gardening by the Moon

Dear Reader,

How nice to see you today! We're enjoying another day of spring, even though it IS a rather blustery day today, to quote Winnie the Pooh.

I spoke with my older sister on the phone yesterday (She's twelve years older, and as such is the fount of gardening wisdom for the family), who reminded me that the full moon would be this Saturday, so I should plant my cool-weather plants then. Have you ever heard of this method, dear reader? It is an age-old practice, which has been lost to us "moderns", but research actually backs it up. My sister told me of a Biodynamic Gardening class she attended, which explained that the soil actually expands one-half inch during the full moon, making growth more rapid. I had heard that one should plant root crops at the full moon and above-ground crops during the new moon, but she says that her teacher insists that all seeds and seedlings will grow better put out during the full moon.

Here's another extremely interesting idea I thought I'd share: The Biodynamic proponents say that if you hold the seeds of larger plants, such as melons, squash, etc, in your mouth before planting, then wait a day before watering, the dna in your saliva communicates with the dna in the plant, and that plant will be programmed to be healing for whatever ails you. Sound crazy? I say, sure, it sounds a little strange, but there is so much more to life than meets the eye, that it couldn't hurt to try it (Maybe not when the neighbors are watching, however). My sister says that the last of a group of Russian "plant whisperers" gave that advice to whoever was researching healing plants (I'll have to ask her for more details, if you're interested.)

Another age-old tradition of gardening uses young nettle tops (After gathering enough to eat and dry for teas, of course) steeped for several weeks in a barrel of water for fertilizer, which is applied on the plants' leaves. Comfrey, if you have it, is also good for this, although we would have to have an awful lot of comfrey to feel we had enough leftover for that! Comfrey contains allantoin, which is a cell-proliferant, speeding up the growth process. I would think, too, that lots of other plants such as alfalfa would be useful as a "compost tea" as well.

One method of planting we cannot recommend is transplanting winter-sown carrots!

May you have wonderful gardening adventures this year, whether your garden be big or small!

Love,

Marqueta

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"O Lord, grant that in some way it may rain every day, say from about midnight until three o'clock in the morning, but you see, it must be gentle and warm so that it can soak in; grant that at the same time it would not rain on campion, alyssum, helianthemum, lavender, and the others which you in your infinite wisdom know are drought-loving plants--I can write their names on a bit of paper if you like--and grant that the sun may shine the whole day long, but not everywhere...and not too much; that there may be plenty of dew and little wind, enough worms, no plant-lice and snails, no mildew, and that once a week, thin liquid manure and guano may fall from Heaven. Amen."

-Karel Čapek, The Gardener's Year, 1929