Moonplot 15!

 

I am just about to eat some delicious potatoes we grew on our plot...some golden-beige, oval beauties. Being city born and bred, there is a certain magic in it all for me...potatoes planted by hand this year on St.Patrick's Day - a Root Day - dug out over the summer and eaten through the autumn and into winter. They taste something like velvet, though I can't truly say I know the taste of velvet. Their flavour is rich and the experience expands the senses. Each time I eat anything from our plot, I feel an immense gratitude. It puts life in perspective, increases my appreciation for the amazing teams globally who sow, plant, harvest, pack, organise, deliver and sell us our food, from the tiny grains to the larger foods we enjoy and on which our very lives depend. This is a humbling experience before me on my plate.

 

Nice Root Crops

 

But back to St. Patrick's day...it was a Root Day and, since joining Minnowburn National Trust Allotments (a year ago), I've been determined to 'moon-plant' as we now affectionately call it. Moon-planting refers to sowing and planting according to the cycles of the moon and thus the (probably not so subtle) rhythms of our cosmos. It's all about timing, it seems - the more precise you are about your gardening, the better the results according to ancient wisdom, since verified by some scientific experiments. Root Day is for planting / sowing root vegetables such as potatoes, beetroots, carrots, onions etc. Leaf Day is for working with many of the leafy herbs, cabbages, lettuces, coriander, celery etc. Flower Day is for those vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, flowering plants etc. and Fruit-Seed Day is for peas, tomatoes, broad beans, courgettes, cucumbers etc. We tried it and it worked. The nasturtiums were delicious - some of you tasted them on the Flaming Nora day! Our potatoes were delicious. Our beetroots were delicious. The list goes on. The organic moon planting worked!

A pretty display

 

 

I've also heard this method referred to as 'planting by the stars'. This might be preferable since 'moon-planting' has brought mild mocking from those who think I also have an allotment on the moon.  The method can get quite complex, so I just follow a book. I would have planted anything, anytime, with no understanding of the greater forces of nature or how to respect them, had it not been for a relative who gave me a special book called 'Gardening & Planting by the Moon 2012' by Nick Kollerstrom (published by Quantum) which, if followed systematically, encourages higher yields, better flavours and heightened colour in your vegetables and flowers depending on when you sow, plant and also harvest...The introduction to the book is great - a short two pages - just about all a busy gardener can read in between weeding! It then gets a little mathematical...

 

 

We know from studies about how our vegetables absorb water and nutrients, the rate at which they grow, their metabolic rate, their electrical activity etc., that they are following tidal rhythms. I wonder if our beekeepers at Minnowburn also notice fluctuations in levels of busyness or other behaviours in their bees depending on the cycles of the moon - some evidence of these cycles can be reflected in the activity of bees too apparently. We ourselves are not immune to these cosmic rhythms either, just perhaps a little less sensitive to them nowadays. No doubt, it's full on, what with turning on our axis daily, amongst the other cosmic commitments we have! 

 

Kales show off after moon planting

 

For our plots, the full moon is an especially important time as our plants' metabolic rate and water absorption are at their highest. Apparently, this is the best time to sow plants, which brings me back to St. Patrick's Day 2012, a perfect Root Day (though not a full moon day, as it happened. As I mentioned, it can get a bit complex). The one issue to consider about moon-planting here is the weather. We would have planted our potatoes on an earlier Root Day had the weather been better. Still, it turns out that it was good to wait as the ground had become warmer. 

 Our potatoes resisted the floods and also the blight that seemed to decimate crops elsewhere. It may also have been the case, however, that we got to our potatoes just in time. At a first glance, they looked like they were dead with their thick leaves all black and flattened to the soil. It didn't look good at all. Slowly, we pulled them out and dug below. A few single potatoes had been hit by blight but not completely and to our sheer surprise and total delight, the rest of the crop was good. Actually, good is an understatement. Incredible would be more apt. They were perfect. I will never know if, by planting them on the Root Day, they got a better start to life, which then made them more resilient for a longer period of time. I've heard many other success stories similar to this from gardeners who know moon-planters or who employ the moon-planting method themselves. 

 

The book I followed is also a diary so you can write in what you did and when you sowed, planted or harvested. It conveniently provides symbols as reminders so you know which are your Root / Leaf / Flower / Fruit-Seed days. It even gives precise times in some cases for certain activities.  The only thing the book doesn't mention is which is the best day to enjoy digesting your crop! In my case, it's daily at the moment. Apart from some morning basics (milk, cereal), my food intake is coming from the abundant plot. I notice too, that at mealtimes, I eat the food we grow ourselves much more slowly than other food, honouring its extraordinary journey to the plate. It's true to say that meals have since become a ceremony in appreciation.  

 

Having gone through the process for the first time this year, I marvel at what happens when we cooperate more gently with nature and the complexity of all its elements. If anyone wants a moon planting versus non-moon-planting tournament next year, do let me know! 

 

Róisín, plot No.15 (Nov. 2012)