Moon Planting

A very brief explanation for Peggy from Organic Growing Pains blog.

Moon Planting follows the phases of the moon.
The chart I use is available as a calendar each year and is produced by Thomas Zimmer. I have been using these charts for over 10 years and although I have tried other methods I have gone back to this one because of it's convenience and it seems to work for me.

Basically it follows the phases of the moon:
The first week of the waxing moon plant Greens - plants grown for their leafy harvests.
The second week up to the Full Moon Fruiting - plants grown for a fruit yield.
* Seeds of these plants can be grown in either Greens or Fruit planting Moon phases:
Annual Flowers, Hay, Cereal Grains & Oil Seeds, Cucumbers, Melons, Leeks and Shallots.
The first week after the Full Moon the Roots - plants where the harvest grows below ground. This is also the time to plants all perennial fruit plants, vegetables and herbs. It's also the time to take cuttings and divide plants.
The second week after the Full Moon is a non-planting time. A good time to get stuck into the weeding, compost making and bed cultivation/preparation.

One rule to remember is not to plant during the 12 hours before and 12 hours after the change of the moon phase. New Moon, First Quarter, Full Moon and Last Quarter. These phases are often shown on calendars.

Within those planting times there are days when it is better to plant than others. This is where it can get confusing so a good chart becomes invaluable. To help with your planting I'll post the dates from my chart for each month on my side menu for a while so you can trial this planting method if you so desire. Please keep in mind that this is an Australian chart and the dates may be slightly different due to time differences. There should be similar charts available overseas...

There are other charts and lists around like Brian Keats' Antipodean Calendar that uses the Sidereal zodiac (see here for more info) and other bio-dynamic gardeners who plant all their seeds two days before the Full Moon each month and transplant with the New Moon. Like the list Deb puts on her Garden, Kitchen and Veranda Blog. These have different planting times so perhaps you'd like to experiment and try those.

The Thomas Zimmer Astrological Calendar and Moon Planting Guide (pictured above) is available in Australia from Warm Earth who also sell the book Easy Organic Gardening and Moon Planting by Lyn Bagnall that explains Moon Planting in greater detail and also has planting times listed.

Both the Brian Keats Calendars and the Thomas Zimmer Moon Planting Guides are available in Australia from Green Harvest.

Another helpful gadget for bloggers (or other web pages) is the Moon Phases Current Moon Box also on my side menu it's free and a great guide to just what stage the moon is at any given time.

I hope I haven't confused you too much, Peggy but I find this method of Moon Planting actually helps me to organise my planting times. There are times when it still isn't appropriate for planting on the right days such as a heatwave or severe frosts forecast but I can generally work around the dates given.

Edited on 7 Sep 08 to add the information at *