These should be retitled 'Something for Monday & Tuesday' since then we have a biodynamic 'flower' window. It doesn't have the same ring though. If you want to try gardening with the moon, the transplanting period starts again on Monday, with flowers being the 'part' most benifiting until breakfast Wednesday. You don't need to know any more than that really.
This ebb and flow of the biodynamic calendar works very well for me. I like thinking in 'cycles', seasons, hormones and moons. This schedule helps me focus and batch all the efforts in a gardening session which is really helpful here. I will be sowing seeds, dead heading, staking, feeding plants, transplanting. When there can be so many tasks to think about, this gives me a great reason to choose carefully.The gardens are certainly doing well. I wouldn't say it is simply because I garden by this calendar but by doing so, jobs that may have been neglected or put off for several weeks, now are prioritised. Moving seedlings swiftly on and planting out is always carried out every two weeks during this period, then I will turn attentions the next fortnight to weeds, feed making, composting, or work elsewhere. Giving me a dedicated short window of opportunity sets my gardening schedule.
Top Jobs
1. Sow perennials and biennials.
On the bench right now are poppies, cornflowers, echinacea, gillenia, thalictrum, achillea and orlaya. Orlaya is a must for the next couple of months as it only germinates well in the late summer into autumn for flowering next year. With the dry spring and summer, it makes sense even more now to sow seeds and let them grow strong roots over the winter to thrive into the spring and summer. Rather than tending in the tunnel come the spring. Those sown this year will be stronger, more resilient, earlier flowering and bigger plants. Ideally they will spend the winter in a sheltered spot, against the house, cold conservatory, greenhouse or cold frame. If the plants are big enough for their roots to fill an 8cm pot, I might even plant straight outside. I think they have more chance in the ground this way. There is still plenty of time to order these seeds to sow later this month and into September.
2. Feed all your flowering plants
A cap of seaweed feed or cup of homemade comfrey feed in a full watering can, ideally in the evening giving the leaves a good soak. Make sure you do the pots now too as the soil will be quite depleted by now. This gives plants a top of trace minerals and nutrients whilst they continue to flower over the next couple of months.
3. Order Spring Bulbs
For planting in September and October (hold back on Tulips until Nov). I am obsessed with Narcissus and will be thinking about topping up the collection! My favourite suppliers are Peter Nyssen, Organic Gardening Catalogue and Natural Bulbs. Especially important are that these suppliers grow bulbs that are not sprayed with chemicals that harm the insects that feed from them as they flower in your garden.
Nicandra, sunflowers, cosmos, rudbeckia and chrysanthemums in the Braybrooke Garden. I can spot a lot more plants growing happily too!
Strong growth from dahlias that were left in the ground last winter.
Early morning sunshine.