gardening
Island Life - April/May 2011
A Lunar
idea?
Tina trained as a professional gardener after
leaving school and spent a summer working
in Tuscany as an English Gardener. She has a
National Diploma in Horticulture.
The lazy
mans lawn
Tina Hughes
How would you like to have
If you have a question for Tina need some advice or
even a suggestion for an article then please email:
[email protected]
more productive crops, better
flowers and more disease
resistant plants? Well why
not try sowing, planting
and harvesting your crops in
The lawn-mowing season is here again
For most of us the traditional meadow
and the grass is growing under our feet,
is now a thing of dreams, ninety-five
it is time to dust off the mower and start
percent of our meadow land has been lost
keeping everything in trim. But what if you
since the second world war. This makes
are tired of the tyranny of endless mowing
the idea of recreating a little patch rather
is there an easier way? How about a patch
appealing especially if you have a lot of
of meadow perhaps, filled with nodding
lawn to mow, but does not eliminate all the
flowers and the humming of industrious
maintenance. Unless your lawn has been
bees.
treated with a lot of chemicals there are
likely to be some plants that will start to
flourish as the mower languishes in the
shed, Yarrow Achillea millefolium, red
and white clover, daisies and birds-foot
trefoil will start to thrive and will attract
butterflies and bees. There are different
types of meadow spring, water, summer
or butterfly are all possible depending on
the fertility and dryness of the soil and
it is important to think about this before
To allow the flowering plants to
flourish the grass can be allowed to grow
until mid September or kept to about
8cm until June before it is allowed to
grow (this helps to kill off coarse grasses
that can take over). All the cuttings
need to be removed after they have been
allowed to dry for a day or two so that
the seeds of the flowering plants are
88
moon. This is not a new idea,
our ancestors used the moons
phases to guide their planting
and harvesting for millennia,
and would even use its light to
gather in the harvests.
The idea
does sound a little dotty until
you consider how powerful the
effect of the moon is on the
tides and many species including
us. Traditionally timber was
felled during a specific phase of
the moon to ensure that it did
not rot.
The theory is that the waxing
and waning of the moon
influences the growth of
different parts if the plant, as it
waxes the energy is drawn to the
you start.
shed back onto the ground.
harmony with the phases of the
parts of the plant above ground,
the flowers and leaves and as
it wanes the energy moves into
the roots. There is nothing to
lose by giving this a try; the best
information I have found is in
the ‘Planting by the Moon’ diary
produced by Nick Kollerstrom,
backed up by some very practical
scientific research.
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