Wow, time has really gotten away from me lately. The week has gone by fast, along with this month… Anyway, among many other activities, I’ve been reading the Farmers’ Almanac to plan out our earliest possible dates to start planting again 🙂 While perusing the site I became interested in what all the “planting by the moon” stuff is. So, I decided to check it out some more.
Planting by the moon is an ancient idea. It is a tradition which theorizes that just as the moon affects the tides of the seas, it also influences the water within plants and earth. Every month the moon passes through the twelve signs of the zodiac, each representing one of the four elements: fire, earth, air, water. Each zodiac sign tells you when it is the best time to do a different gardening task, such as planting, harvesting, even pest control. Each element can be described in ways like fruitful, barren, dry, moist, productive, etc. Each sign has more specific meanings, and even each moon phase has meanings. For example:
- Earth signs are generally best for root crops
- Water signs are generally best for leafy, above ground crops
- Air signs are dry, but work for some plants
- Fire signs are very dry, best for harvesting
Below are the signs in a nutshell – see this page for some more information.
- Aries –Â fire sign
- Taurus –Â earth sign
- Gemini – air sign
- Cancer –Â water sign
- Leo – fire sign
- Virgo – earth sign
- Libra – air sign
- Scorpio –Â water sign
- Sagittarius – fire sign
- Capricorn – earth sign
- Aquarius – air sign
- Pisces – water sign
When I first started reading about this idea, it was just for fun. It sounded too folklore-ish to me to really be useful. But after some internet searches, I have to admit I’m intrigued by the idea and might even have to give it a try, just to see what happens. There is a book called Astrological Gardening: The Ancient Wisdom of Successful Planting & Harvesting by the Stars which will probably help explain this subject better – I haven’t read it to know for sure. If I do I’ll let you know 🙂
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