Gwydion's Planting Guide & Annual Year Sheets - Information
Your questions answered! (I hope!)
In response to various enquiries regarding Moon planting over the years, I wrote a leaflet which is likely to answer your questions too. It will also give you useful background information about Moon planting generally. The same text follows, I do hope you find it useful.
- Julian Gower.
Where did the traditional Moon planting method described in Gwydion's Planting Guide originate, and what is it based on?
The Guide describes the original, traditional method of germinating and transplanting according to the Moon's phases, a method which has been documented in ancient cultures across Europe, Asia and elsewhere. The same method was used for thousands of years and by different cultures, because continual observation showed that particular periods in each lunar cycle produced variation in the way plants developed. Fairly obviously, plants have evolved to make use of the Moon's cycle of light in the night hours, and a moment's thought about tides should illustrate how groundwater also moves according to the lunar cycle.
Briefly, the Moon is secondary only to the Sun where light is concerned, and affects available groundwater in the same rhythm. The Guide describes these cycles and the way plant growth responds to them, showing how this long established technique is scientifically valid.
The Guide describes how to utilise the 'primary' and 'secondary' techniques which underlie all valid Moon planting, and it concentrates on vegetable growing, food production being the most important reason for the development of this original method from ancient cultures to present times.
In another publication, I've read different times for sowing/transplanting, and other periods for different plants, for flowers, fruit, leaf growth, seeds & so on. Why do they differ from the traditional Moon planting method described in Gwydion's Planting Guide and which should I use?
You need to know the underlying rationale for the sowing/planting system concerned, whether it is likely to be effective given what we know about plant development, then decide how it might compare with the traditional Moon planting method described in Gwydion's Planting Guide.
Keep in mind that traditional Moon planting developed mainly from the need to provide the best possible food crops, and that most other traditional techniques are extensions of this basic method. In recent times a variety of different methods have been proposed, some incorporating parts of original techniques, some involving other factors than Moon planting, and some, unfortunately, using astrological factors which are inappropriate when considering the specific needs of plant development. Your most effective source to learn about different methods nowadays is a quick internet search for ìMoon plantingî which produces a surprising variety of sites, but keep in mind the points above.
You may also have read the term 'bio-dynamic', or seen astrological planetary and aspect data introduced as part of some planting regimes and be confused as to how these relate to the above. By all means learn about bio-dynamics which involve lots of other good organic gardening practices, but specifically for sowing and transplanting, I advise using traditional Moon planting, defining time slots according to full and new Moons (the 'primary' technique) as this effect is generally greater whatever further refinements are introduced. Traditional Moon planting is entirely compatible with bio-dymanic and all other organic gardening regimes, in place of less effective recent 'new age' sowing/planting timing methods.
The 'secondary' technique, a refinement defining shorter time slots within the longer 'primary' time slots, should not be confused with some recent 'new age' proposed sowing/planting timing methods. In this regard, you may also encounter arguments as to which zodiacal system to use, whether to use the juxtaposition of planets in different germination methods, and a plethora of other factors which may or may not actually address the specific needs of appropriate plant development. I trust the following will help, especially if you do not wish to thoroughly research all the available information, publications and internet sites! Gwydion's Planting Guide is designed so that you don't need to know all about astrology, and it explains the concepts necessary as you follow it.
In the Guide and Year Sheets, the primary technique involves promoting above ground or root development on the waxing and waning portions of the lunar cycle respectively, which is the principle most effective factor for Moon planting, with a couple of days' adjustment due to the way plants make use of lunar cycles. The 'secondary' technique involves planting when the Moon is in 'earth' or 'water' zodiacal signs during the longer appropriate waxing or waning periods. The secondary technique is intrinsically more speculative, but sound evidence exists regarding specific experimental examples. (Again, the internet is your best source.)
Various traditional customs make use of the archetypal 'elements' of earth, air, fire and water as attributed to each zodiacal sign. For instance, flowers are often planted with the Moon in an air sign, Gemini, Libra, or Aquarius. This can be regarded as a development of the secondary technique of traditional Moon planting, though it could be argued that a water or earth sign promoting above ground development generally will produce better blooms - you decide; nature simply covers all possibilities!
Zodiac signs are divisions of the sky each named after the constellation that occupied it when the system originated in classical Chaldea and Babylon; Aries, Taurus and so on. The delineations of the sky and their characteristic attributes are not the same thing as the visible constellation each is named after. Stars in constellations are only associated by appearance, varying hugely in their distance from us and each other, and have absolutely no causal or direct relationship with us, whereas zodiac sign divisions can be accurately delineated, their synchronicity with events observed over time, and that accumulated knowledge adds to the body of astrology. The attributes don't apply to the constellation itself, only to the directionality of the zodiac division concerned.
We use the 'tropical' zodiac system, which delineates the sky into 12 equally spaced divisions, starting at the point of the vernal equinox, as delineated and understood since antiquity. This is the major system used in contemporary 'western' astronomy and astrology, for good reasons which accord with the nature of synchronicity and so on. Briefly, I'd suggest that other zodiac systems, such as the 'sidereal zodiac' based on the visible constellations named as zodiac signs, show a rather a 'fundamentalist' approach where plant requirements are concerned - learn the background and decide for yourself. Similarly, some methods include planetary alignments as a major factor - This simply isn't Moon planting and I shan't bother to elaborate the obvious. (Incidentally, the gravity of Mars affects us less than someone walking across Australia does, whereas the Moon moves the tides....)
Some growers, such as holistic herbalists or those with magical requirements for specific 'associations' will use their own systems, but those are for specialist reasons and not the same thing as Moon planting. Some methods introduce the Moon's distance from the Earth as a variant for the strength of tidal effects (using apogee and perigee tables) but I would always tend to make use of the traditionally basic lunar effect of waxing and waning as a first principle, outweighing all except solar effects. (After all, are you more interested in your crops or constructing charts for every unlikely but just possible tiny variation?!)
Personally, I recommend always sowing or planting vegetable crops of any kind by the traditional Moon planting method, along with lawn sowing (& turf laying, i.e. transplanting) and for hedge planting and so on. It's straightforward and it was the original method developed by the experience of farmers for millennia since the times of early cultures. For other plants, it's certainly worthwhile and fun to experiment, which is what it's all about.
Happy gardening!
- Julian Gower.