Lunar Gardening Principles

Lunar Gardeners take advantage of the natural rhythms of the moon, by planning their activities in the garden to coincide with the most favourable conditions in the sky. Moon Gardeners co-ordinate four key variables:

1) MOON PHASE

– Is the moon waxing or waning ?

During a WAXING moon, the earth is exhaling, and moon gardeners will want to sow non-root plants

During a WANING moon, the earth is inhaling, and moon gardeners will want to water and fertilise their crops

More about Moon Phases

2) MOON PATH

– Is the path across the sky ascending or descending ?

During an ASCENDING moon, sap is drawn up, so moon gardeners will be looking to graft, and to harvers non-root plants

During a DESCENDING moon, sap is drawn down, so moon gardeners will want to plant, or prune their crops

More about Moon Paths

3) MOON CONSTELLATION

– Which constellation is the moon passing in front of?
The passage of the moon in front of the constellations acts as a ‘lens’ that emphasises the effects of the moon phase and moon path on different parts of the plant. This gives rise to ‘Root Days, Flower Days, Leaf Days, and Fruit Days – see below:

More about Constellations

4) PLANT ASPECT

– What aspect of the plant needs to be stimulated?
Moon gardeners consider what their particular activity is done for eg:

~ to encourage LEAF growth (salads)

~ to discourage ROOT growth (weeding)

More about Plant Aspects

INTER-PLANETARY AND OTHER INFLUENCES

There are other recorded weaker ‘negative’ influences on moon gardening, such as the geometric inter-relationships between the planets (Oppositions, Trines, sextiles, etc), the position of Saturn, and the moons transition across the ecliptic (nodal changes). Some enthusiasts would consider these, however for practical purposes, and because gardening time is too short for most of us, we have omitted these from our Moon Gardening calendar. If you want the full chapter and verse, we recommend the ‘Biodynamic Planting and Sowing Calendar’, by Maria Thun.