Planting by the Signs

Gardening by moon signs has always intrigued me. It's something that's always made sense to me because the pull of the moon moves water. And water - and how water is stored in veggies - controls everything from how quickly and vigorously a seedling comes up to how long a winter squash will last in storage.

But, making sense of the intricacies of the lunar calendar is quite another thing. Here's what I understand:

The moon takes 29.6 days to go around the earth. It goes through the 12 phases of the zodiac in that time. The zodiac is divided into the four elements. Water - Cancer, Pisces, Scorpio; Earth - Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn; Fire - Leo, Aries, Sagittarius; Air - Gemini, Aquarius, Libra. Basically, water and earth are fertile signs, generally good for planting and pruning for growth, and fire and air are barren signs, good for weeding, tilling, harvesting, and pruning for control of growth.

Somebody way back in the antiquities of time figured out a way to tell which moon phase they were in. They assigned parts of the human body to each sign. I've heard, "The moon is in the feet," and "Don't cut back the brush now, the moon is in the loins!".  Do I understand how to tell which of the 12 phases we're in? Nope.

Several years ago I bought a lunar calendar with zodiac and gardening hints printed on it. Since the moon is in each phase of the zodiac for only 2-3 days, it was hard to keep track of the things to do (today plant above-ground plants with seeds on the outside) and schedule them in my relatively short growing season AND have a life. I gave it a try, though. My idea was that I would plant a crop (say, bush beans) whenever it was convenient and plant bush beans again during the correct moon phase - carefully recording the results of each in a garden diary. Well, 2011 was a very cold, wet spring and I ended up having to replant beans twice after the seed rotted in the ground. Plus, I found that I didn't have enough garden space for that many plantings of each crop. In my frustration, I quickly lost interest in the moon, the zodiac, and the diary.

These days, I loosely follow the Synodic schedule. When the moon is waxing (or getting bigger) I plant above-ground crops, transplant, and prune for growth. When the moon is waning (or getting smaller) I plant below-ground crops, weed, prune to limit growth, till or cultivate, and harvest. The reason for this is that I can simply look outside and see where I am on the schedule. Are there days on the moon wane that I transplant? Or when the moon is waxing that I weed? Sure. If I have a half hour that I can weed, I use it no matter what the moon says! Can't hurt, right?

One day I might go back to the control-group/moon-phase-group/diary thing, but not this year!

A site that may help if you're considering gardening by the signs is the Facebook page "Planting by the Signs". It has day-by-day gardening and zodiac posts.

Good luck!

(Edited later in the day) Oops! I forgot the most important part! The way you can tell if the moon is waxing or waning is this:  If the moon is waxing or getting bigger, the right side of the moon is lit. Its right side is round and smooth like a D. If the moon is waning, the left side of the moon is lit - the left side is round and smooth like a C.