Gardening by the moon

No this is not an article about doing all your gardening chores at night time, I thought about a comment made at our gathering the other day about Moon planting and it stirred my curiosity, and not one to let things lie, I have done a little research. I found charts and astral sites, and astrological signs that best represents your crop, however I soon realised that the subject is more than just whacking some seeds in on a full moon.

The following is a bit of a generalisation, The Moon has three significant rhythms that relate to three methods of Moon planting

• Water is the mediator of lunar forces. Consider the moons effect on tides and since 80% of a plant consists of water, then the effect on sap movement would be significant.


• When water is rising during the Waxing Moon, seeds sown and crops planted can more easily take up liquids than those sown in the waning phase.


• Lunar forces are associated with fertility and the power to regenerate species.


• It has been found that seeds germinate better & grow faster if planted 2 days before a full moon.


• Medicines such as drenches are also more effective on full moon.


• Moon affects moisture contents of the plant. e.g.Full moon fruit or veggies are juicy .Great for eating now!


• New moon –harvest fruit & veggies that need storage


• Hay dries faster if cut on new moon


• Best timber is cut at winter new moon less sap.


• Prune on New moon Transplant seedlings


• 'From the new moon to the first quarter, a time when there is a greater upward pull by the moon, is a good time to be planting anything with a leaf product.


• From the first quarter through to the full moon is when you can concentrate on above-the-ground growth, the fruiting type of plants


• From the full moon through to the last quarter is a time to be focusing on root crops


• And in the last quarter through to the new moon you can either have a week off, or it’s really good time for weeding and mulching.

So of course armed with all this information, I'm no more informed than before and I will have to do things the old fashioned way- visit our local library. Hopefully I'll be able to bring to the next gathering an armful of useful information, in the meantime this i found to be a good link http://www.users.on.net/~arachne/MoonPlanting.html

Eden seeds has a good chart found here http://www.edenseeds.com.au/content/default.asp follow link to books and then under M this chart MOON PLANTING GUIDE FOR GARDENERS 2008 - WALL CHART

Maybe there is some sense to 'Carrying moonbeams home in a jar'

Monthly Natter - May

Hi and thanks to all that made it to Derek & Kaye’s - thank you for your hospitality.

We sorted through seeds and created a bank and now we have and a good collection for spring; listed below. Please let me know if you require any seeds or any of the seed database from SS Byron Bay listed. Derek offered the glasshouse for growing/raising summer veg during spring, and will be a valuable asset to our group with growing out seedlings ect. After a tour of the patch and another cuppa, we shared seeds and seedlings and bid farewell to next time – have a great holiday Derek & Kaye see you in spring. Thanks everyone- great effort

Here are some of the links & docs as discussed today. Also keep up to date with bits and pieces with our blog site, its there for all to add to, so please add comments and any tit-bits you might come across.

Seed savers listing www.seedsavers.net/ then follow “local groups” link at left hand side to find our seed savers page


http://www.gardenate.com/ - good planting guide

http://www.seedsavers.net/publications/1187091548_6844.jsp - seed savers school gardens link

Violet Town (I will be going so any that wish to grab a lift yell out)
The next local meeting will be held at Judy Wills property (‘Winston’, second on right after leaving VT on the Nalinga Road, ph 5798 1413) on Sunday 8th June (2nd Sun this month) at 1.30pm. This will be the winter Seedy Sunday—Monika will have the seed collection there. There have been some wonderful donations of seeds this past month—so a great opportunity to hear about each variety as it comes in, and take some out for future planting. The record books will also need updating with each variety, and some packaging of any excess for sale.

Our seeds
Coriander
Sweet Basil
Parsnip
Pack choy
Carrot – western red
Florrence Fennel
Chard
Italian Parsley
Perilla - red
Marigold
Lettuce – Derek’s let us pray
Pumpkin – Marina De Chioggia
Gramma – Butternut
Bush Bean – Jade
-
Climbing Bean -Purple King
-Snake Bean
-King of the Blues
- Muffet
- General Maclay

Monthly Natter

A good roll up for our propagation day last meeting and plenty of material to choose from - many thanks to everyone who brought along the great propagating material. Also a big thanks to Virginia, who very generously donated a selection of beans, to kick off our seed bank. Virginia's knowledge and experience with beans, will mean the seeds we now have will go a long way towards adapting and conserving been varieties in the GV.

This month we are off to Derek & Kaye's should be a great one! it will be a bit of a seedy day, as we will be deciding what varieties we have in our collection, which we will request from seed savers bulk list and also which varieties we should concentrate on. i will be explaining a bit about the pea challenge.

Directions -From Mooroopna follow signs to Echuca (ie Echuca Rd)
Pass Cornish Rd on left, through 100km/h sign near the Cemetery
Turn next right into Cemetery Rd (don't take the track next to channel)
Turn left into our drive way about 50m down Cemetery Rd
Red roof house on the corner.

For those interested.
The latest Eden Seeds newsletter (Autumn ) is now available on their website. Just click on the link below, or copy and paste it directly into your browser.
http://www.edenseeds.com.au/cms/page.asp?name=Newslettersletters

Beans Still going strong with good pick every 2nd day. i cant wait to get some of Virginia's beans into ground

Kale showing serious problems with aphids & Caterpillar, i will spray with mix of 6 whole chili & 2 garlic cloves & 4 whole onions chopped in food processor added in 2 Lt water & simmered 15min then 2 tablespoons of grated natural soap added while mixture still warm. to spray plants mix 500ml of juice with 1 litre of water and spay every 2-3 days.

Rain- Glorious RAIN!

As I write this the rain is still persisting, as a misty haze and interrupted by heavier showers. The outlook for further rain is OK with some more falls expected later in the month. And from the Bureau of Meteorology
rain
The La Nina is appears to have peaked and should now continue to weaken. Equatorial Pacific Ocean temperatures are cooler than normal in central parts but slightly above normal in western and eastern parts We conclude that the La Nina should now remain weak or neutral through the remainder of 2008. Rain events originating in the tropics and moving south are possible about 26-28 May, 08-09 June, 14-15 June and 24-25 June. Confidence in the result is MODERATE to HIGH. http://www.eldersweather.com.au/index.jsp?lt=dist&lc=v03

So before we all breathe a collective sigh of relief, spare a though for the farmers who face a season with zero allocations.Pray, rain dance do anything - we all need more.

Yalca Fruit Trees

Hello everyone,
It's that time of year again when the leaves begin to fall off the trees and it's a good time to think about what fruit trees you might like to plant in Winter. You are receiving this catalogue because you have either bought fruit trees off us before or expressed an interest in our catalogue (or you are our relatives or friends!).
We send out our catologue once a year, with the occasional update. If you do not want to recieve it, please let us know.
Attached is the catalogue and order form, which you can email or print out and post back. For those of you familiar with our catalogue, you will notice some changes this year- we listened to your feedback and we are now selling a range of nut trees, citrus, kiwi fruit, gooseberries and currants - as well as a wider range of our standard deciduous fruit tree offerings.
As most of you will realise, we are a small, family and home based business and we rely on word of mouth referrals. If you are a member of a permaculture group, gardening or seed savers club we would very much appreciate you distributing our catalogue far and wide. Also, if you think your local market is fantastic and you would like to see us there this winter let us know and we'll see what we can arrange.
We are in the process of developing a website http://www.blogger.com/www.yalcafruittrees.com.au, but this is not up and running yet.
Due to quarantine restrictions we can not send our trees to Western Australia.
Enjoy the read, and we look forward to hearing from you. Don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.
Regards,
Campbell and Tanya Holt

TO order contact Campbell & Tanya via email camandtan@yahoo.com.au

Pea Challenge

Seed savers has a programme of regeneration or rare varieties, and to those who wish to take on the job of sowing growing, observing the performances and saving the seed of any of these varieties,they send them out to local seed networks. I have requested several vareieties from them with the aim of putting out the challenge to our group with growing them on saving some and coming up with the best suited peas to our local climate.


It may be their growth,quantity, pest resistance, pod size, sweetness, or suitability for feezing, we want a good variety and the best atributes recorded and shared.

Some of these peas are from Seed Saver's 'posterity collection' mad from about every sample sent to them, others are quote old and may not germinate. Peas dont generally cross with one another so you can grow as many as you like. just let me know which ones your'e interested in and ill send them on.

Do as suggested and observe the performance, how many you sowed, and save some seeds to bring back to our bank for sharing and comparisons.