Read my article on growing by the moon in December issue of Grow It!
Under the Moon p1
Under the Moon p2
Under the Moon p3
Under the Moon p4
Under the Moon – article in Grow It!
November 6th, 2009 by CarolVegetables to overwinter
August 24th, 2010 by CarolA quick reminder of veg. you can sow over the next month to have crops during ‘the hungry gap’:
Lettuce, sow early September harvest April – May (make sure you use a winter hardy cultivar)
Spring cabbage, sow August – September harvest March – May (choose hardy cultivars if you live in the north of England or Scotland)
Brassicas growing earlier this year
Spinach, sow early September harvest April – June
Salad onions, sow now to early September harvest April – May
Leaf beets, sow until end of August harvest April – June
Milan turnips, sow to end of August harvest October
Remember to protect from both slugs and pigeons though!
Broad Bean comparison Moon & Control Bed
August 23rd, 2010 by CarolWe’ve harvest all the broad beans now with a goodly number tucked away in the freezer to eat over the winter. Each time we harvested we weighed the beans in their pods and then when they were podded… Remember that both lots of broad beans were grown organically, the only difference is that the ones growing in the moon bed were sown, weeded etc on the specific days of the lunar cycle whilst the ones in the control bed were sown, weeded etc. on the ‘wrong’ days.
This is what part of the moon bed harvest looked like
And the results you ask? the yield from the moon bed was 2.5 k of beans in pods and 785g podded. In the control bed the yield was 2.1 k of broad beans in pods and 543 g of podded beans. The broad beans in the moon bed not only performed better but the ratio of beans to pod was higher too. In the control bed there were ‘blind’ pods and pods with gaps in, the moon bed pods were all properly filled.
Just like this example below
Next up for the final harvest of the year is our pea crop.
The harvest continues in our organic and lunar gardens
August 13th, 2010 by CarolWe are having no problems getting our 5-A-Day right now with a huge variety of veg to select from.
We’ve now lifted all our 1st early potatoes, loved the Colleen’s wasn’t so keen on the Maris Baird which, in spite of supposedly being waxy were too floury for my taste. Guess which ones the neighbour’s got? We are now harvesting the 2nd early potatoes, Cosmos and Carlingford. The different in yield between the moon and control beds is significant so far. Potatoes harvested from the moon bed are larger and cleaner than those from the control bed. There is a lot more top growth on the control bed potatoes than the moon bed potatoes. I’ll keep you updated on how the tattie harvest continues.
Here I am in amongst the peas which we seem to have a very good crop of, at least in the moon bed.
We are also harvesting, and weighing as we go, peas, broad beans, swiss chard, spinach beet and various brassicas. Again to date the crops in the moon bed are producing higher yields and plants that bed appear to be more resistant to disease and insect attack. Though the application of garlic spray on the brassicas in both the control and moon bed has been a big help.
Wonderful Greyhound cabbage… this one cabbage lasted us for four meals!
I’m in the paper!
August 9th, 2010 by CarolOf course the Press & Journal did not actually write what I told them which was that none of the onions we harvested from the moon bed went rotten whilst some of those harvested from the control bed did!
Growing by the Moon in August
August 1st, 2010 by CarolAugust is the time to be thinning your brassica seedlings, remember to thin the leaf brassicas such as cabbage and kale on a leaf day and the flower brassicas such as cauliflower and calabrese on a flower day.
Use a proprietary organic garlic compound diluted and sprayed on your brassicas to encourage strong growth and to deter pests. Remember that a strong plant can survive an attack of caterpillars whilst a weak one will succumb.
Keep an eye on your onions grown from sets and if the stalks have flopped or the foliage has yellowed lift them between 6 – 18 August and leave on the surface to dry for several days.
On a fruit day remove the old canes from summer fruiting raspberries and dig out strawberry plants that have fruited three times leaving the runners to take their place.
Into the veggie garden to do some harvesting…
Whilst it is important to harvest crops for storage on the correct day, for example your main crop potatoes on a root day as the 1st and 2nd early potatoes are best eaten fresh you can actually harvest these on any day other than the nodes and perigee. This is equally true for any vegetable that you will be eating immediately so you can pick lettuce, tomatoes and other salad goodies when the moon is descending as well as when it is ascending!
Here I am lifting some first early potatoes Coleen, a wonderful waxy potato!
In August you should be sowing and hoeing the land at the following times:
Roots: Hoe/sow seed on 4 – 6, 13 (after 1pm) –15 (before 6pm) 22 – 23 and 31 (after noon) – 2 September. Winter radish and turnip can all be sown in the open ground; you can also try sowing carrots to eat as fingerlings.
Fruits: Hoe/sow seed on 2 – 3, 11 – 12 (before 1pm), 21 and 29 (after 2pm) – 31 (before noon). Runner beans can be sown in the open ground in the first half of the month.
Leaves: Hoe/sow seed on 1, 9, 17 – 19 (before noon) and 26 (after 10am) – 29 (before 2pm). Spring cabbage, endive, kohl rabi, lettuce and salad greens, parsley, Chinese Cabbage and Swiss chard can be sown in the open ground. Continue to transplant your Savoy cabbage, and kale seedlings.
Flowers: Hoe/sow seed on 8, 16 and 24 – 26 (before 10am). Plant out broccoli seedlings.
The tomatoes are finally starting to ripen.
If you are harvesting for storing then:
Harvest your root vegetables on 6, 8 – 9 and 11 – 18 August when the Moon is descending, the best days to harvest are 6 and 11 – 14 August. Harvest beetroot, carrots, garlic, onions, shallots, radish, spring onion, summer turnips and potatoes (2nd earlies).
Harvest all other vegetables on 1 – 5, 19 and 21 – 31 August when the Moon is ascending, the best harvesting days are 2 – 5, 21 – 24 and 30 – 31. Harvest broad beans, French beans, runner beans, cabbage, courgette, broccoli, cauliflower, marrow, radish, Swiss chard, lettuce, peas, tomatoes and spinach. Also harvest soft and top fruit.
No work or harvesting should be done in the garden on 7 descending node, 10 perigee and 20 ascending node.
Harvest time
July 22nd, 2010 by CarolWe are now reaping the fruits of our work earlier in the year. with new potatoes, baby turnips, kale, salad leaves, swiss chard, spinach beet, spinach and broad beans all appearing at the table. Not to mention a bumper crop of raspberries from our original canes. This is the time of year when I really enjoy my food.
Up until now we’ve been lifting the potatoes from the moon bed and getting around 1 kilo of potatoes per tuber. Today David lifted two tubers of the same variety from the control bed and still didn’t get a kilo of potatoes – need more convincing? The kale we have been picking is all coming from the moon bed, the control bed kale is not nearly as well grown (mind you this kale is ‘meant’ to be harvested in winter!
We’re resowing as we clear an area to maximise the harvesting period and have our fingers crossed that the second sowing of carrots will perform better than the first!
Neighbours are all being kept supplied with potatoes which delights them, whilst the plum and apple crops are looking good. I’m not sure if the dangling CDs and DVDs deterred the birds but there has not been any bird damage. The garlic barrier spray has also seemed to deter the bugs from laying their eggs or eating the leaves.
Talking about eggs, for those of you who keep hens eggs collected around the last quarter will produce mainly male chicks. For female chicks , eggs should be collected around the first quarter. For best results incubate the eggs so that they hatch between the new moon and the first quarter. Let me know if you try this and it works!
Growing with the Moon in July
July 3rd, 2010 by CarolIt is tempting to think that you don’t need to keep sowing crops in July but to keep the vegetables coming, you need to keep sowing. Sow some more carrot seed at the beginning of the month to use young in salads and with lighter summer food. Along with salad leaves, summer radishes and summer turnips these need to be sown every two weeks.
Remember that new potatoes do not keep as well as the main crop ones so harvest smaller quantities as you need them.
Whilst on the subject of potatoes it is good to use a nettle decoction to prevent disease and stimulate growth. Cut up the fresh plant into small pieces and soak in water; 1 kg of nettles to 15 litres of water (remove any seed heads); and leave to steep for a week use a wooden or plastic bucket but not metal. Stir to encourage to ferment, then filter out the plant pulp and add the pulp to your compost. Use the resulting liquid diluted 1:10 – 20 as a spray. Good days to do this in July are 14am, 16am and 20pm.
This month you should be sowing, hoeing and weeding the land at the following times:
Roots: 8 – 10, 16 – 19 and 26 – 27. Beetroot, carrots, baby turnip and radish can all be sown in the open ground.
Fruits: 6 – 7, 14 – 15, 23 and 25. French beans, runner beans and peas can be sown in the open ground.
Leaves: 3 – 5, 12 (after 9am), 21 – 22 and 30 – 31. Spring cabbage, leaf beet, kohl rabi, lettuce and salad greens, parsley, spinach and Swiss chard can be sown in the open ground. You can also transplant your Savoy cabbage, and kale seedlings.
Flowers: 1 – 2 19 (afternoon) – 20 and 28 – 29. Plant out broccoli, cauliflower and Calabrese seedlings.
When can I harvest my crops?
I had a long discussion with the author on harvesting, my concern being that if you could only harvest on certain days how were you meant to keep the produce. As I now understand it the harvesting days are important if you are harvesting for storing/freezing, if you want enough veg. for your dinner then it is fine to harvest this as needed.
Harvest roots for storing on 10, 12 and 14 – 16 July when the Moon is descending, the best days to harvest are 10 and 14 – 16 July.
Harvest all other fruit and vegetables for storing/freezing on 1 – 9, 22 (pm) – 23 and 25 – 31 July when the Moon is ascending, the best harvesting days are 6 – 9, 23 and 25 – 27.
Of course when you are growing by the moon you get a few days ‘off’ each month. No work or harvesting should be done in the garden on 11 descending node, 13 perigee and 24 ascending node.
What is happening in the vegetable garden?
July 2nd, 2010 by CarolI feel completely embarrassed that a whole month has gone by since I last posted! In my defence David & I were at Gardening Scotland for 6 days up on the north coast of mainland Scotland for 5 days and also had workmen repairing the flat roof of the house!
Most things are looking good in both the moon bed and the control bed. The hames on the potatoes in the moon bed are significantly bigger than those in the control bed – whether this will mean a bigger crop is a matter of wait and see. So far we’ve lifted one 1st early Coleen and had around 1 kilo of potatoes from it. However, this was not from the moon bed or the control bed but another garden where we are growing veg!
The moon bed broad beans are taller than those in the control bed and seem to have more beans on them. The peas also look better in the moon bed.
We started some of our leaf crops off in the propagator and then grew on in the greenhouse before planting out. The difference in size between those that were started off in trays and those sown directly into the ground is considerable… We will certainly be starting off as many of the brassicas as possible in seed trays and the propagator next year.
These are the ones we started off in the propagator
Whilst these were sown directly into the ground a good month or more later. Notice the use of unwanted CDs DVDs to keep the birds away!
The onions are okay – nothing to write home about but okay. The huge disappointment is the carrots, normally we have no problem growing them but this year, for whatever reason, in both the moon and control bed germination has been poor. It is really puzzling us as we covered the area where they were to be planted with the 6 metre mini poly. tunnel for a few weeks prior to sowing and, when we did sow we covered immediately with fleece which we left on for weeks. We’ve never bothered to do either before and, I doubt we will do so again.
The raspberry canes have all taken and David has maximised use of space by planting some additional dwarf beans in between them. These are not part of the trial but are several varieties of Italian beans including the Borlotti bean with it’s amazing red/yellow pod. These can be eaten like a normal dwarf bean or allowed to dry and just the beans used. Until I saw all the different varieties of beans on the stand at Gardening Scotland I had no idea just how into their beans the Italians are, apparently they eat them far more than we do!
We’ve already harvested one complete row of spinach and re-sown it, spinach is one of those crops you can keep sowing for another month or so yet.
Just remember to water everything really well whilst it is so dry!
I’ll put up the information on what to do when in July tomorrow.
Keeping the Bugs at Bay!
June 1st, 2010 by CarolA plant-based decoction of wormwood, pyrethrum or English ivy used either individually or in combination can help to keep pests away from your crops.
Whichever plant you choose, the process for making decoction remains the same. Cut up the fresh plants into small pieces and soak them in water (use 1 kg/2 lb of plants per 10 litres/15 pints of water) and leave it to steep for between one and four weeks – use a wooden or stoneware container, or even plastic if necessary, never use a metal container.
Stir the liquid from time to time to help it ferment; then filter out the plant pulp and put in your compost. Use the resulting liquid fertilizer diluted in the proportion of 1:10–20, as a spray. Spray in the early morning, good days for applying an insecticide in June are 4th, 5th, 10 – 12th and 29 – 30th.
Growing by the Moon in June
May 28th, 2010 by CarolWell May is nearly past and it is time to give you the info for growing in June. We’ve had mixed success with our germination this year – probably due to the fluctuating temperature and David has had to reseed in some cases… One crop which is looking good in both the moon and control beds in the potatoes with 100% germination! Mind you we waited for the soil to warm up before we planted.
So here goes June…
Tips for growing with the Moon in June
Continue to thin carrots, parsnips, beetroot, spinach beet and spring onions; this helps to get air and water around the remaining seedlings. Remember to thin carrots on a windy day and replace the fleece once they have been thinned.
A healthy garden will have both pests and predators; unfortunately the pests will appear before predators, so keep them at bay by simply rubbing them off. Nip or snip off any plant parts covered in black fly and remove completely from the garden. Young brassica plants can get little holes in the leaves, flea beetle causes these, but if the plant is sturdy it will pass. Pick off slugs, snails and caterpillars you see until the birds and frogs move in to help – feed them to your hens if you have any. Use natural, organic insecticides and fungicides if you do need to treat for pests. Apply insecticide in the early morning preferably on 1 – 5, 10 – 12 and 29 – 30. Apply fungicide in the evening, preferably on 1- 3, 8 – 11, and 26 – 30.
Planting by the Moon
Roots: prepare the ground/sow seed on 1 – 3, 10 (pm) – 12, 19 – 21 and 28 (after 10am) – 30. Beetroot, carrots, endive and radish can all be sown in the open ground.
Fruits: prepare the ground/sow seed on 8 (after 3pm) – 10 (before 11am), 16 (after 11am), 26 and 27 (pm) – 28 (10am). French beans, runner beans and peas can be sown in the open ground. Courgette, marrow, pumpkin/squash and sweet corn seedlings can all be planted out.
Leaves: prepare the ground/sow seed on 5 (after 1pm) – 8 (before 3pm), 16 (before 11am) and 23 (after 2pm) – 25. Late cabbage, celery, Chinese cabbage (2nd half of month), Endive, lettuce and salad greens, parsley and Swiss chard can be sown in the open ground. With many leaf crops including the salad vegetables and Swiss chard it is a good idea to sow small amounts of seed every week or so to keep up a fresh supply of produce. Transplant your Brussels sprout seedlings.
Flowers: prepare the ground/sow seed on 3 (after 11am) – 5 (before 1pm), 14 and 22 – 23 (before 2pm). Broccoli, Calabrese and cauliflowers can be sown outdoors. The seedlings of broccoli, cauliflower and Calabrese also need planting out now.
Harvesting in June
Harvest your root vegetables from 12 – 24 June when the Moon is descending, the best days to harvest are between 18 – 19 June. Harvest beetroot, early carrots, radish, spring onion, summer turnips and new potatoes (2nd half of month).
Harvest all other vegetables on 1 – 12, 25 – 26 and 28 (pm) – 30 June when the Moon is ascending, the best harvesting days are 1 – 2, 26 and 29. Harvest autumn sown broad beans, lettuce, peas, and spinach.
No work or harvesting should be done in the garden on 14 before noon descending node, 15 perigee and 27 before noon ascending node.
