SPANISH GARDENING

BY CLODAGH AND DICK HANDSCOMBE

This column is not about your hair style or length of hair but about the best dates for getting your hair cut, planting seeds, pruning fruit trees , making compost and harvesting onions for storing. As strange as it may seem the relative position of the moon and the more distant planets in relation to the earth and sun have a significant influence on such things as astronomer gardeners have known since the time of the hanging gardens of Babylon. For the statisticians the best days in March for getting your hair cut are the 11/12, 17/18 and 20/21 and in April the 13/14, 16/17 and 23/24.

When we started to grow vegetables in Spain we asked some of the older villagers still working allotments – huertos in Spanish – when they planted various vegetables. In many case the reply was related to a full , new, waxing or waning moon and whether the moon was high or low in the sky. At that time we had no street light so we started to study the sky something we had never had time to do before and purchased a copy of the Calendario Lunar published by Artus Porta in Spain. We found that our Spanish was good enough to understand most of the charts and started to do many tasks according to recommended dates. Unfortunately when street lights were installed we lost our dark sky and vividly clear landscape of planets and stars so it became difficult to relate the calendar to reality except by results.
 In each of our six books on gardening in Spain we included an introductory chapter on gardening by the moon and included one of the key monthly charts from the Artus Porta book with their kind permission. The  problem with that book for many readers is that it is in Spanish and although most of the charts can be followed with a rudimentary Spanish vocabulary there are limitations to understanding the text. We were therefore delighted to recently receive a complimentary copy of  a recently published English translation. The title is ‘In tune with the moon 2008’   published by  Findhorn Press in Scotland.The price to Spain by mail order including postage is 16.64 euros if ordered via their web site <www.findhornpress.com.> and 18.00 euros if ordered via the telephone 0044-1309-690582 . As well as translating the chapters of the Spanish Calendar relating to gardening it has the original chapters relating to the best dates for getting your hair cut, having teeth filled or extracted and when to detox. Whether or not you believe or apply all it says it makes an interesting read and is the basis of biodynamic agricultural increasingly practiced around the world.

So if you are a keen gardener interested in reading beyond the chapter in our books on using a lunar calendar this is the book for you. It contains more useful information in an easily understood manner than any other lunar calendar we have found todate.

*Clodagh and Dick’s latest trilogy of books are Your garden in Spain, Growing healthy vegetables in Spain and Growing healthy fruit in Spaineach published by Santana Books. If you have problems finding a local stockist contact Santana on 952-485-838 between 10.00 and 14.00 hours.

© Clodagh and Dick Handscombe February 2008.