Garden Club Presentation: God’s Heavenly Clock

God’s Heavenly Clock

Soon as the evening shades prevail,
The moon takes up the wondrous tale,
And nightly to the listening earth
Repeats the story of her birth;
While all the stars that round her burn,
And all the planets in their turn,
Confirm the tidings as they roll,
And spread the truth from pole to pole.
Forever singing as they shine,
The hand that made us is divine.

Ode, by Joseph Addison

To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die: a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted. ~ Ecclesiastes 3:1-2

That verse, very concisely, describes the qualities of gardening by the moon. I tried through many different venues to find a local gardener who still plants by the moon and the signs. While I have heard from local nurseries that some of their elderly farmers still follow these principles, I was not able to locate a flower gardener that plants by the signs. I was able to locate an article by Raymond Joyce, our local county extension agent, which summarizes a lot of the principles I’m going to try to explain today. He told me that his Grandfather Joyce planted by the phases. That article is folded into your almanacs.

I had a first-hand, but distant resource I was able to call upon. Last Spring, I took a free online class and met Colleen, a young woman, a farmer, in Canada whose family has been following these principles for generations. I have included some of her findings for you today. When I wrote to ask if she could help me, she sent this note along with a lot of helpful tips:

“I would love to help out, as our living comes from growing things because we are farmers.  It has always been very important for me to watch the moon and it was only understandable to try to understand how the zodiac signs fit into the equation. For most it’s really not important. But for me
and other people who are truly connected with nature, whether we want to admit this or not, we must watch the cycles. Most of the information I have gotten over the years has been from my grandmother. She is known around the world because she cross-pollinated and created new seeds to make new flowers. So all of the lily organizations would know who she is, as she has created numerous new lily breeds or flowers. Lots of the lily’s that are pink in color were created by my grandmother. So if you pick up a lily bulb to plant, it could very well have originated from my grandmother. It would take her 7 years to create a new bulb for a new breed of lily…”

(Many of her notes are incorporated into this presentation. You can see all of her notes in Colleens’s notes.)

I bet some of us have Colleen’s grandmother’s lilies in our gardens today. Colleen mentioned that she watched the moon, and went on to say that she also watched the zodiac signs. The zodiac is the belt of constellations that surrounds the earth and that the Sun travels through each year.

There are 3 major points or principles to gardening by the Moon.
1. The moon’s phase
2. The zodiac signs
3. The elements

Your zodiac sign is the same as the Sun signs you read in the daily horoscopes. You’ll learn how the signs fit into gardening after I describe the phases of the Moon. The Moon’s phases are the first point, the first thing that we look at when we garden by the moon.

Phases of the Moon

The New Moon–We cannot see the Moon during this phase because it rises and sets with the sun. It will be approximately in the same place as the sun in the sky. The sun’s brightness keeps us from seeing hte moon in the sky, but it’s there.

Within a couple of days, however, we start seeing a little silver crescent moon. During the next 7 days, the light on the moon  will increase until it reaches the 1st Quarter Phase. This is the phase when the moon is half full. From the 1st Quarter until the Full moon, lighted surface of the moon
continues to grow. Within another 7 days we will see the beautiful, romantic Full Moon.

From New Moon until Full Moon, the moon is said to be increasing in light. It is during this time, when the moon becomes more and more visible, that it is best to plant leafy annuals that produce their yield above ground. This is also the time to plant flowers for beauty, abundance, sturdiness, and hardiness.

When the moon is full, it is a good time to plant belowground root crops such as beets, carrots, turnips or potatoes. They say that if you dig root crops at this time, they’re supposed to keep longer. (Those “green bags” work really well, too.)

My friend in Canada had this to say about the waxing phase of the Moon, the time from New Moon to Full Moon.

“The new moon is always the beginning, when the seeds can be planted and begin their cycles. Now is always a good time to plant. Remember you must wait till it is a new moon because a waning moon is the ending of the cycle and nothing will grow properly as it thinks the cycle is over. The new moon is good for vegetable gardens. The first 1/4 moon is when things begin to grow. This presents the challenges of growing things.”

She mentioned the Waning Moon as the end of the cycle. The Waxing moon is when the moon grows in light, from the New Moon to the Full Moon. The Waning Moon, on the other hand is when the moon decreases in light, from Full Moon to New Moon. If any of you have ever wondered about it and couldn’t remember which is which, this is a good way to remember. Think of how much shinier your kitchen floor is when you wax it.  Waxing = growing in light. Eventually your floor, if it’s like mine, gets…well, let’s just say it’s not so shiny anymore…that’s the Waning Phase, when the kitchen floor gets duller; and when the moon Decreases in light.

But away from kitchens and back to gardens.

After the Moon is full, you’ll notice that it begins to decrease in light. This is the time to plant biennials, perennials, bulb, and root plants, including crops planted in the fall to “winter over “and produce their crops in the spring. You can plant onions now. About a week after the moon is full it will enter its next phase, the Last Quarter.

The Last Quarter is sometimes called the 4th Quarter. From the last quarter until the New Moon, which will occur approximately a week later, it is the best time for pulling weeds, destroying pests of all kinds, and turning soil. It is especially good when the moon is in one of the barren signs.

That sums up the Moon Phases and brings us to point #2, the zodiac signs.

First, it’s important to understand that zodiac signs and months are not the same. A zodiac sign usually starts around the 20th of one month and goes until about the 20th of the next month. Since months have different amounts of days, this varies a little.

The Zodiac Signs

There are 12 zodiac signs, and each one is assigned to a part of the body. If you’ve ever heard anyone say that they were going to plant something “in the feet,” this is what they meant. The body/sign associations start with the head and is assigned to the first zodiac sign, Aries. The signs then progress down the body until we reach Pisces, the feet. Each of these signs is also assigned particular garden duties.

The 12 signs are divided into two basic types: barren and fertile. The fertile signs are the water signs and the earth signs. These are also referred to as the feminine signs. These are good for planting, transplanting, irrigating. These are productive times. The barren signs refer to the fire signs and the air signs, also known as masculine signs. These are good times for weeding, harvesting, destroying pests, mowing your lawn, and generally getting rid of things so to speak. It’s fairly easy to remember.

Earth and Water are fertile; Fire and Air are barren.

These two distinctinctions, barren and fertile, bring us to the 3rd point of gardening by the Moon, the Elements. Now this will all tie together for you in a little while. I’ll show you how to read your almanacs and determine the good days for gardening based on the Moon’s phase, the Signs, and the
Elements.

The Elements

I’ll start by telling you a little about each element. We have to have just the right amount of each
element to create a beautiful garden. Too much of one or the other, and your garden could be headed for
disaster.

The first zodiac sign is Aries, a Fire sign. The other fire signs are Leo and Sagittarius. These signs are considered dry barren signs. Fire provides heat, but does have a tendency to dry things out. The sun, of course, is our garden’s heat source.

The second zodiac sign is Taurus, an Earth sign. The other earth signs are Virgo and Capricorn. If there are any of you here today who were born between December 22 and January 20th, Happy Birthday. You’re Capricorns. Earth provides stability for seeds and transplants (which are vulnerable), but can become hard and desert-like if we give it too much heat. Then our sprouts wither and die. We’ve all had pots of plants where the dirt has become hard, and the water just runs through them.

The third zodiac sign is Gemini, an Air sign. The other air signs are Libra and Aquarius. Without air, our plants suffocate. Any of you who are rose gardeners have heard all the warnings about giving your roses enough breathing room, enought space so that the air can circulate. That breathing space helps prevent black spot and other diseases.

The fourth zodiac sign is Cancer, a Water sign. The other water signs are Scorpio and Pisces. These water signs are the most fertile of all the signs. Cancer, the crab, is associated with the womb and motherhood. How much more fertile can you get? We can have all the earth, fire or heat, and air in the world, but without water all our plants will die. Only a very few, rare plants exist without water and I doubt that any of us have those in our gardens. I do have an air fern that dissolves in water.

Think of gardening by the moon and the elements as though you were baking a cake. Think of the various cake ingredients as the different elements.

All your dry ingredients, such as flour, would be represented by the earth element. Even the bowl you use to mix the ingredients and the pans you use to bake the cake would be the earth element. The liquid ingredients–eggs, water, milk–would be the water element. Remember that earth and water
are the fertile elements. Now put all these ingredients into your bowl. You can let them sit there all day, but unless you stir them, you won’t get a batter. The stirring introduces the element of air. When you turn on your mixer and hold your hand near the blades, you can feel the air whirling around.

We’ve got earth, water and air. What element is missing? Fire! You can make the most fantastic batter in the world, pour it up in the pan, and even set it in your deluxe over, but unless you provide fire, or heat, you’ll never get a cake.

Air and fire are the barren signs. Remember that you want to plant during the fertile signs and harvest or weed during the barren signs.

Putting it All Together

The next step is putting all this information about the phase, the signs and the elements together. The first thing we do is determine the moon’s phase. Nest, determine the sign. Look for the fertile signs, the water and earth signs. Now is when our Alamanacs come in handy. I’d like to mention that
Badcock’s was gracious enough to supply us with these abbreviated 2004 Farmer’s Alamanacs. You’ll find everything in here that you need to know. All almanacs have a daily listing of moon phases and the signs.

Turn to page 30 in your Alamanc, it’s the page for the month of January. If you don’t know how to read an almanac, you’ll be a pro by the time you leave here today. The top bar will tell you which sign the month begins with and which it ends with. This month, January, began with the sign of Capricorn and will end during the sign of Aquarius.

You’ll also find the Moon’s Phases listed on the upper left of the page. You’ll see that the Full Moon occurred on the 7th at 10:40a.m. Now we couldn’t see the moon at that hour because it was still below the eastern horizon. The full moon rises in the evening and sets the next morning.

The next phase listed is the Last Quarter. That’s today, January 14th, at 11:46pm. Since most of us will be in bed at 11:46 tonight, we won’t get to see the moon rise, but when you go out tomorrow morning to get the paper, look to the west and you will see the moon peeking at you. This is my
favorite phase of the moon because I get to see it during the day. It looks so beautiful against a pale blue sky. The moon is new on the 21st, that’s Chinese New Year by the way. Remember that we can never see the moon when it’s New. The last phase listed is the 1st Quarter phase. That’s when we can see the moon in the afternoon sky. The moon rises at 1:03 am and sets at 5:03 pm.

So we’ve learned that today, January 14th, we have entered the Last Quarter phase. Now we have to determine the zodiac sign that the Moon is in. Go down the page until you find the listing for today. You’ll see that next to the 14th, you find the abbreviation for Wednesday. The next thing you’ll find is some astronomical information. We don’t need it for gardening, but some of you may find it interesting if you’re stargazers. It lists star and planet information. The next column is titled “Moon’s Place.” You’ll see a symbol that looks like an M with an upward pointing tail on it. That’s the
symbol for Scorpio. Scorpio is a water sign. It’s also a fertile sign.

So now we know that we are in the Last Quarter Phase, in the sign of Scorpio. Let’s ignore today’s weather for the time being. Would these conditions be good or bad to set out flowering plants?

Bad.

Even though Scorpio is a fertile, water sign, we are in the Last Quarter. The Last Quarter is decreasing in light, so it’s better suited for other garden varieties: root crops and bulbs, for example.

The combination of phases and signs is constantly changing, so you will find a time when the right combination appears.

Your almanac has made finding those combinations easy. On page 14 there is a concise “Planting and Gardening Calendar.” Each month is divided into several types of garden activities. If you look at January’s row you’ll find today, the 14th, listed under seed beds. Other dates good for this activity
will also be listed.

I want to give you two great tips. The first is plant flowers during Libra for beauty. The second is to plant vines during Virgo because they produce beautiful flowers. Not much fruit, but beautiful flowers.

Closing

Technology and alarm clocks, jobs outside the home, school schedules for our children, and a myriad of other things have taken us away from nature’s cycles. The cycles of nature are, metaphorically speaking, God’s clock. You can go out to your garden at night, look up at the star-studded night sky, and find the Moon (or not) in one of it’s phases. You’ll be looking at the minute hand on the heavenly clock.

I have decided to experiment with these principles. They’ve been around for thousands of years now, so there must be something to them. An awful lot of almanacs are sold every year. This New Year I resolved to work with the clock of heaven and these ancient principles in my garden at home. Who knows what results I’ll get. I still consider myself an amateur gardener so I have plenty of other things to learn as well. I would love to work with a partner who is interested in giving these principles a shot and compare notes on how our gardens grow. It could be only a section of your garden if you wanted to truly test the theory. If you would be interested, just let me know after the meeting.

I brought some books by a well-respected author, Louise Riotte, on the subject we’ve discussed today. Please feel free to take a look at them. There are also some good internet sites that I can tell you about if you’re interested. And be sure to get a good look at the more detailed notes on the board.

I had no idea when I suggested this topic at the planning meeting that I would become the presenter. It’s something that I’ve been curious about for a long time. So I learned a lot preparing for you today.

Thank you for letting me share it with you.