Monday, March 25

Currently in Greenhouse 1 there are lots of spinach plants, some kale, plenty of rosemary a few happy spots of chickweed, and garlic all sprouting up on the four beds that extend for about thirty feet under the warm, heat-trapping plastic. In other words, there’s plenty of room for more. At least that was the rationale behind this morning’s delightful seed-planting session.

I planted four rows of spinach on one side of the upside-down “V” shaped bed, fellow volunteer Andy planted some ‘atomic red’ carrots, Carly planted the normal, orange carrots, and Nate the future farmer (not to be confused with friendly Nate of the orange hat who’s planning on running a triathlon because he’s cool) planted snow peas. Liam (the guy who should be in a ukulele commercial) offered free advice and sprinkled plants with water.

What an excellent day to plant! And I mean that in a scientific way of course. Because today is one of those days with a funny thing happening in the lunar cycle. Some people might think trying to maximize germination by planting when the moon is in certain positions is lunacy (ha ha ha!) but at Riverview we’re giving it a serious shot.

Some of the earliest studies took place in the 1950s by Mary Thun in Germany. She experimented using potatoes and found potatoes were more successful (grew better) when the moon was, from our perspective, positioned between the constellations of Taurus, Capricorn or Virgo. Also know as a "root day.”

Further observations and experimentation resulted in a type of agricultural practice under the larger field of biodynamics that contends that certain types of plants do better when planted underneath certain zodiac signs. I think I should throw in here that some people and websites consider biodynamics and a lot of the practices a form of pseudoscience.

But, as a counterpoint, it’s an observable fact that the moisture content of the soil is highest during the full and new moons when they exert a strong pull on the water in the earth. Professor Frank Brown from Northwestern University for instance, conducted a 10-year and found that plants absorb more water during the full moon.

Another interesting thing I came across is the practice of planting according to the zodiac signs, and their corresponding elements. Neither the 'fire' element nor the 'air' element are supposedly good for planting, but the 'earth' and especially the 'water' element supposedly are. From March 21 to April 20th is Aries. We're planting under the fire sign. Oops. Either I've grossly misunderstood the whole planting according to the element thing or no one is actually following this. Whatever! It's interesting.

Fire - Aries, Leo, Sagittarius
Air - Gemini, Libra, Aquarius
Water - Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces
Earth - Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn

Today is March 25^th, the full moon is on the 27^th. That means that in the upcoming days the moisture content in the soil should peak, hopefully providing a bit of extra momentum to our seeds thinking about germinating.

I felt like I should include a reference even though probably no one reading this cares.

E. A. Crawford, The Lunar Garden: Planting by the Moon Phases(NY, NY: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1989), pp. 9-26 & 47-50.