Last year I grew vegetables from seed for the first time. It was a lot of fun experimenting. For Christmas, I received ‘The Maria Thun Biodynamic Calendar’ as a present. It involves gardening by the phases of the moon and other planets.
I’m sceptical if gardening by the moon really does make any difference but when January came by and winter felt never-ending, it gave me something to focus on. When planning which seeds to buy and grow this year I used the calendar to plan a sowing dates list. Now I’ve started to sow seeds I really like how, if nothing else, the calendar has made me more organised. I can stop constantly thinking ‘I must sow seeds’ and can just look at my calendar for the next sowing date.
I’m not sure I understand completely what the theory of moon gardening is all about but I think it’s the idea that plants can be affected by the moon’s gravitational pull. So tending root plants when the gravitational pull is less and overground plants when it is more. Also, that the gravitational pull has an effect on water, so sowing seeds when the moon is full and more water is pulled to the surface to make the seeds swell.
It does sound a bit hocus pocus. Although it is a fact that plants do rely on gravity (geotropism) When a seed is in the dark soil it uses gravity to know which way is up so it can grow its stem to the surface and which way is down to grow roots. So maybe there’s something in it?!
Have you tried gardening by the moon?