I thought that this was only a religion in rural France, amongst the older generation. An acquaintance has people from his village continually commenting over the wall (with expressions of pity) when he appears to be doing something 'at the wrong time'. Fortunately, although people can shout down to me in my garden, they can't actually see what I'm doing because they are too far away. I'm also learning to lie.But now that I'm subscribed to a weekly gardening mag (both for my French and to improve my vegetable-growing skills), I notice that my periodical of choice has recently become obsessed and even slightly hot under the collar that I ensure everything is done at an opportune moment. Something to do with us all having a fresh start at the beginning of a new season.
Since I'm one of those people who wishes to remain a student for life, I became excited and took careful note of what was required of me. And I love the idea that someone is bothering to remind me of what might be important that week. (As well as caring enough to include snappy little slices of fascinating, if useless, information.)
As an ex-Buddhist I still firmly believe that we are all part of 'the whole', and it seems very obvious that the moon exerts a powerful influence on our lives. I'm thinking tides and so on, and I hope you are still (sort of) with me.When I began to read about gardening with the moon, I thought - yes! I'm going to try it! I'll make sure that I sow things when the moon is in the ascendant and prick out/prune/harvest when it is in the descendant. So I studied my free annual guide to the moon's movements with excitement. I sowed all of my Hardy Plant Society seeds when the moon was rising on a 'flower' day, 2 February. (Don't tell anyone I didn't quite make the 13.58 deadline - but all the pots were prepared by then, it was just a question of sowing ...) Later, on 10 February (still a root day, up until 17.43), I sowed my onions ('Paille des Vertus'). This probably seems a little late to British gardeners, since Boxing Day is traditionally onion-sowing day, but theoretically we have a longer growing season in France.
But here comes the rub. I noticed (finally - sometimes I'm a bit slow on the uptake) that a 'flower day' meant that the moon is in Gemini, Libra or Aquarius. A 'root day' means it is in Taurus, Virgo or Capricorn (typical - we Capricorns always get stuck with the dirty, hard stuff no one else notices until they benefit). At this point I realised that what a national gardening magazine was asking me to do was to believe in astrology for plants. Now I'm already a bit of an ashamed addict (it cheers me up when I'm low - sometimes!), but this is taking things way too far.I would love to hear the opinions of others? Do you do it? Does it work? I'm going to carry on 'following my stars' for a little while. I keep good records, but I'm not sure that I'll really be able to assess whether or not my onions are better this year than last. And I'm a bit worried about sowing salad crops once a fortnight to keep up a succession - how will that work?
The photo above is of my rootstocks waiting to receive their scions - this 'must' be done after 21 March, no matter the season. (There's sense there - that's a date when the sap can be guaranteed to be rising, essential for achieving a good graft union). But presumably, nearer the time, I will be instructed to do it on a 'fruit day' when the moon is rising in Aries, Leo or Sagittarius? If I follow the rules, could be fruit nirvana this year!
