The plants should do well, every gardener wants that, logically. This article asks whether it is worth relying on the moon for this purpose. It gives you a first overview of gardening with the moon and which gardening work should be done best in which phase of the moon.
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Gardening with the moon
There is no reliable scientific evidence that gardening with the moon has any advantages. Scientists agree with astrologers and esotericists that the moon has an influence on the earth and life on it. Only the extent of this influence is assessed very differently. It is scientifically recognized that the moon’s gravitational pull influences the tides and that continents rise or fall as a result of the moon’s gravitational pull.
In July 2013, a study was completed that proves in one area that the moon has been underestimated so far – and the 40 percent of Germans who describe themselves as moon-sensitive may not only be suffering from overflowing imagination:
Swiss scientists were able to prove that the lunar cycle has a measurable influence on the night’s sleep, regardless of light sensitivity. The nights of the subjects in the sleep laboratory were reduced by around 20 minutes when the moon was waxing. This is not the first scientific evidence of physiological responses to the lunar rhythm. Similar study results already exist for marine animals. Deep in the sea, the plankton moves z. B. with the moon phases up and down. The gravitation (tidal effect) is not supposed to be the cause, it is not noticeable in such small amounts of water as in the human body, and certainly not in plants.
58 different animal species are known to date that react to earthquakes long before any seismograph does, and plants react to a lack of light with a change in their entire metabolism at lightning speed. Hundreds of genes are e.g. B. simply “switched off”. In front of this picture, it no longer seems completely impossible that the lunar mass can have an impact on individual individuals, whether human or plant.
In any case, nobody prevents you from starting your own series of scientific experiments in the garden, e.g. B. with gardeners after the moon. Below we have compiled the most important experiences in this field for you.
Kleine Mondkunde
New moon and full moon are special constellations in that the earth is in line with the sun and moon in these two phases of the moon. In both constellations, the lunar forces can be felt particularly well on earth; B. particularly strong. “Moon gardeners” suspect that the same applies to the effects on plants. Anyone gardening according to or with the moon therefore initially does so in the rhythm of these phases of the moon, which are therefore briefly examined in more detail below.
The moon is only visible to us when it is irradiated by the sun during its migration around the earth, it does not shine itself. We can only see half of the moon at most, the “back side of the moon” remains in the moon best case, full moon, outside of our line of sight. Depending on how the earth, moon and sun are in relation to each other, we see different amounts of this illuminated half. The positions of the moon within a lunar phase have been named by astronomers:
new moon
Astronomy begins its study of the moon with the new moon, the moon we do not see. Because the new moon is when the moon is between the earth and the sun, so from our perspective the sun is shining on the “back side of the moon”, the half facing the earth is completely in the dark.
Increasing Moon
Now the sun, moon and earth continue to move or rotate, and soon we can see a bit of the moon. The moon always begins to be visible on the right-hand side, so the waxing moon increases from right to left. To recognize that the moon is waxing, there is a mnemonic: In the old German Sütterlin script, the “z” was a character that only consisted of arcs to the right, “z like waxing moon” was a practical one according to this alphabet mnemonic.
When the moon has then waxed so far that we see the entire right half, it is crescent, although confusingly that crescent completes the first quarter of the lunar phase, so is actually a “quarter moon”. You can see this waxing moon in Germany in the evening sky and in the first half of the night.
full moon
The next is the full (actually only half full, namely with the front side) visible moon, the full moon. The moon appears to us in this way when the earth is between the moon and the sun. The sun “shines, so to speak, around the earth” on the moon, which presents itself to us as a fully illuminated, magnificent sphere.
waning moon
After the full moon, the moon decreases for our eyes, namely its right half is less and less irradiated by the sun. When the moon is waning, we can always see the “moon on the left side”, the right half is “waning”, is more and more in the dark. The mnemonic for this is: “a like the waning moon”, because the curve on the left side of the a is like what you see from the moon when the moon is waning. About a week after the full moon, the moon is again in such a position that exactly its left half can still be seen, so it is half moon (or gibbous moon) again.
Gardening to the rhythm of the moon phases
And what does the current phase of the moon have to do with the garden? According to no less experienced gardeners, a lot. In short, one could express the assumed influence of the phases of the moon on the plants as follows:
What grows in the ground is best planted and tended during the waning moon. What grows upwards is better tended to by the gardener when the moon is waxing. The plant saps sink down into the roots when the moon is waning and rise to the aerial parts of the plants when it is waxing. From this, special insights can be derived for each phase of the moon:
- Gardening at new moon
- Strengths for new beginnings gather
- now carry out all work that supports the regeneration of the plants
- Pest control, pruning diseased trees and shrubs, quite radical
- Growth energy at this time is said to be sitting in underground parts of the plant
- Gardening by the waxing moon
- Earth should exhale, the plant juices rise again
- in the first quarter the moon is supposed to give the first impetus to above-ground growth
- now plant what grows above ground: for example leafy greens and cauliflower, watercress and lettuce, cucumber and cabbage, roses and annual flowering plants
- second quarter of the waxing moon belongs to the above-ground fruits
- depending on the season for planting and harvesting
- it is now also the turn of cuttings and grafting
- Gardening under the full moon
- Now the power of the moon is greatest
- Plants should be particularly good at absorbing nutrients
- Fertilize now, but pruning should be avoided
- Herbs are said to contain the most ingredients when collected on full moon days
- Gardening by the waning moon
- Earth shall now breathe
- Plant juices sink back down into the roots
- Now sow and plant everything that develops underground fruits
- Put root vegetables, tubers and onions in the ground or water, fertilize, cut and harvest
- Also pull weeds now
- just before the new moon start with the pest control and the pruning of the trees
Advanced gardening with the moon
Gardening with the moon for advanced users is not only about the forces that unfold the waning and waxing moon, but also about the effect of the zodiac signs on the garden and the plants. And this is where it gets more than difficult. Today we no longer live according to a lunar calendar, but for a long time according to a solar calendar, in which the “lunar months” had to be adjusted in time. So we don’t have much to do with the actual lunar month.
According to the astronomical definitions, these lunar months cover a fairly different period of time. There are many different lunar months for astronomy:
- synodic month (29.53 days, origin of the months)
- sidereal month (27.32 days)
- tropical month (7 hours shorter than the sidereal)
- draconian and the anomalistic month (not important here)
However, astrologers determine the signs of the zodiac according to lunar months. Classical astrology is based on the twelve tropical signs of the zodiac and sidereal astrology is based on the twelve sidereal constellations. And the gardening should then be based on these constellations or signs of the zodiac. Aries, Leo and Sagittarius are meant to remind us e.g. B. Bring fruit days when it’s hot and everything dries out faster.
However, in the tropical system from March 21 to April 20 is “Aries”, in the sidereal system from April 19 to May 14. There are also differences in Leo and Sagittarius, but different ones, because in contrast to the well-known tropical zodiac signs, the sidereal ones have completely different lengths.
So if a publication or a lunar calendar does not indicate which astrological system it refers to, you can only conclude one thing from this work: Here someone wants money or a few monetary clicks from you, without having to deal with the content of what he is there writes to have somehow closer occupied.
When a publication states which astrological system it uses, you still don’t know why Gemini should only be used to sow climbing plants, Leo should wither seedlings, and most importantly Scorpio should be the appropriate time to fight snails (according to the sidereal System the period from November 23rd to 30th, a rather unfavorable and short time for snail control). Certainly not suitable instructions for critical minds. Any justifications that would promote your own comprehensibility are typically missing here.
Conclusion
Gardening with the moon – why not? Perhaps it moves not only the seas, but also the plant sap. However, if you are guided by a lunar calendar, according to which you are on March 19th. Root plants may be planted, but not between 5:30 a.m. and 9:45 a.m. on 20.3. until 1:30 a.m. root plants and from 4:30 a.m. (both at night?!) flowering plants, one can only say that it really is your own fault if your plants do not thrive.
