Green Fingers: Keeping it simple when growing some food
Growing crops according to the phases of the moon is steeped in a mixture of ancient superstition
With the popularity of growing some vegetables and fruit, there comes some slick buzz words which are dropped into the conversation about this popular hobby. Some of these terms are long established such as ‘permaculture’, ‘no-dig’, ’forest gardening’, ‘sustainability’ and ‘gardening by the moon’ which is sowing and planting according to the lunar calendar which some skeptics have unkindly coined as the ‘Wacky Calendar’.
I like to keep things as simple as possible and gardening can be treated in a clear way without complicating it with jargon and convoluted methods which serve no purpose. There is much more understanding now about nutrition, pests and diseases that we can make use of preventative methods to avoid potential problems. In the case of one crop like tomatoes, we use fresh compost each year and use the old compost for other unrelated crops and have never had any problems with a food deficiency or attack by a pest or disease.
This is a method where there is no digging but layers of compost are placed on top of the ground each season and then the current year’s plants and seeds are sown. It is quite successful and different to any of the traditional methods and has a small following of adherents as it does take some time to set up and get running.
Growing crops according to the phases of the moon is steeped in a mixture of ancient superstition and folklore but can be backed up to a large extent by logic and practicality. Our ancestors over time worked out when it was the best time to plant crops and this was through close observation to the natural world. Some years ago I adhered to a ‘Moon Gardening’ calendar in a plot of ground while at the same time worked to my usual time scale. I could not see any difference at the end of the year but what was telling was that sowing and planting dates in both methods were fairly similar so maybe we are gardening according to the moon already without really knowing the origins.
I would suggest that growing some of your own fruit and vegetables has to be one of the most sustainable growing methods and it merges with many other facets of gardening. Established gardeners have limited imported materials as they recycle almost anything that is of use in growing, and they make their own composts. They make good use of their limited space growing a variety of mostly short-cycle crops and practice rotation and if they can, they will extend the season and crop types by growing under cover such as a tunnel or glasshouse. Finally, by cultivating the ground and intercropping less annual weeds are allowed to surface, of course there are no perennial weeds and by keeping the plants growing in a healthy manner, they are not so prone to much, if any, pests and diseases. Another word for this sustainable gardening is called ‘permaculture’.
I find the term ‘forest gardening’ nostalgic and romantic in that it transports us back to prehistoric times where we gathered our food in the wild. That was the way where the day was spent moving about gathering and eating food but it is not a method for today, as it would lead to starvation but, there are a few people who practice this to some extent with either a wild garden of their own or they forage some native plants including seaweeds during the growing season.
