aboutthemoon

A Beginner's Guide

"Have no plant in your garden that you do not believe to be beautiful,
or know to be useful."

Mary Crowther

In the same way that the moon will cause the oceans' tides to ebb and flow, she also plays a hand in the drawing of water to the surface of all inland things, trees, flowers, crops, wells... and the phases form a kind of rhythm to the life around you that, once you're hip to it, can make things flourish in surprising ways.

Deciding when it's best to plant and harvest, propagate and destroy according to the phases of the moon is common practice for anyone whose livelihood depends on it (check the Farmer's Almanac). Generally, one looks at the phase of the moon (waxing, waning, new or full) in addition to the astrological sign it is passing through.

Gardening by the Moon is nothing new, it was a subject of particular interest to the ancients, most notably for Pliny the Elder, but became a real subject of fascination during the Renaissance for Nicholas Culpeper and Giambattista della Porta (John Porta to his friends), among others, whose investigations led to fascinating, confusing assignments of rulership of plants to the planets determined according such criteria as the type of soil it would grow in, it's medicinal properties as well as the plant's physical characteristics... and in keeping with the spirit of the Renaissance, what would begin as an earnest inquiry into the simple pond lily would lead you swamped in alchemy, not (un)like a fat weed/That roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf...

Fortunately, (to balance things) the labours of love of people like George Clifford (who collected and catalogued over 3,461 specimens in the 1700's) and Mrs. Grieves (who published a definitive botanical guide to 800 common plants in 1931) a practical knowledge of any particular species is not far from reach.

So, it is very easy to quickly find oneself in over the head in regard to the study of the Moon's influence on growing things, and the following is offered as a beginner's guide to the phases of the moon, astrological signs, and the individual qualities of plants, in order to know and to better care for the little living things in your garden.

A Beginner's Guide
"Have no plant in your garden that you do not believe to be beautiful, or know to be useful."
	Mary Crowther
In the same way that the moon will cause the oceans' tides to ebb and flow, she also plays a hand in the drawing of water to the surface of all inland things, trees, flowers, crops, wells... and the phases form a kind of rhythm to the life around you that, once you're hip to it, can make things flourish in surprising ways. Deciding when it's best to plant and harvest, propagate and destroy according to the phases of the moon is common practice for anyone whose livelihood depends on it (check the Farmer's Almanac). Generally, one looks at the phase of the moon (waxing, waning, new or full) in addition to the astrological sign it is passing through. Gardening by the Moon is nothing new, it was a subject of particular interest to the ancients, most notably for Pliny the Elder, but became a real subject of fascination during the Renaissance for Nicholas Culpeper and Giambattista della Porta (John Porta to his friends), among others, whose investigations led to fascinating, confusing assignments of rulership of plants to the planets determined according such criteria as the type of soil it would grow in, it's medicinal properties as well as the plant's physical characteristics... and in keeping with the spirit of the Renaissance, what would begin as an earnest inquiry into the simple pond lily would lead you swamped in alchemy, not (un)like a fat weed/That roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf... Fortunately, (to balance things) the labours of love of people like George Clifford (who collected and catalogued over 3,461 specimens in the 1700's) and Mrs. Grieves (who published a definitive botanical guide to 800 common plants in 1931) a practical knowledge of any particular species is not far from reach. So, it is very easy to quickly find oneself in over the head in regard to the study of the Moon's influence on growing things, and the following is offered as a beginner's guide to the phases of the moon, astrological signs, and the individual qualities of plants, in order to know and to better care for the little living things in your garden.