With the moon at its closest to the earth, its perigee, on Wednesday 28th and in an earth sign during the ascending moon, it may be a great day to experiment planting your root crops. Perigee brings greater moisture to the Earth and a tendency towards fungus growth. As especially carrot and parsnip seed need to be constantly moist to germinate, using this time may make your job of keeping the seed moist easier. On Thursday and Friday, the moon is in an air sign. On Saturday, Sunday and Monday until 09:16, it is in a water sign. It then moves into a fire sign until Wednesday 5th at 15:44.

The moon continues its ascent, the earth breaths out, until Monday when it begins to descend, and the earth inhales and draws its growth forces back down below the soil surface. The ascending moon is favourable for seed sowing. The descending moon is favourable for plant transplanting. Both activities are happening in the garden at this time of year.

We are entering into the main planting season for summer harvest. Crops that can be sown during this month are globe artichokes, asparagus, beet root, carrots, coriander, cucumbers, parsnips, peas, potatoes, radishes, rocket, spinach, spring onions, sweades, turnips, winter squashes and pumpkins. Crops that can be transplanted are basil (with protection), broccoli, cabbage, capsicum (with protection), cauliflower, celery, Chinese greens, eggplant (with protection), flowers, leeks, lettuce and salad greens, onions, parsley, silver beet, tomatoes (with protection) and zucchini and summer squashes. Look forward to sowing sweet corn in the next few weeks.

For more information about our Biodynamic Notes, visit About our Biodynamic Notes

-Gardening Notes are compiled using Brian Keats Antipodean Astro Calendar; Maria Thun's Gardening for Life; Biodynamic Agriculture Australia's Biodynamic Resource Manual; Peter Cundall's The Practical Australian Gardener; and the experiences and farm practices on Transition Farm

For more information about the Antipodean Astro Calendar, Biodynamic Planting and research and more visit Brian Keats' website at http://astro-calendar.com/index.htm

For more information about Biodynamics and to purchase biodynamic preparations visit Biodynamic Australia at http://www.biodynamics.net.au/

Being a descending moon in a fruit sign meant the perfect day to transplant our tomato seedlings. As opposed to seeding directly into pots, we bunch some seeds in lines on seed trays. This allows for more seeds that require warmer temperatures for germination to be on the heat pad. Before we had the greenhouse, though, I still seeded like this to fit more seeds into our sunny window. Once the seeds have germinated and have their first true leaves, I pluck them out and put them into pots. They are still tender and need nurturing so back into the greenhouse they go to form more roots and to grow into thick, strong seedlings.