Janet Tweedy wrote:
Out of curiosity I have just received the 2007 diary/almanac for
planting by phases of the moon. The allotmenteer in the recent
television series seemed to think there was a definite advantage to
growing and sowing etc by the phases of the moon.
Thought I'd give it a go in 2007

There is a marginal advantage to digging the veg garden by moonlight.
You won't break the dormancy on quite so many of the perrenial long
lived seeds in the ground that way. Show them some strong sunlight
while you dig and they will grow.

New book starts in October 2006 so should be fun and MIGHT remind me to
do jobs that I keep putting off until
a) the seedlings are long and drawn for want of planting out
or
b) the seedlings go into the soil a bit too early and I lose them all

I would be a lot more inclined to base planting time on the local
weather.

If you insist on planting at say "full moon" (or any other specific
lunar phase) you are stuck with either planting 2 weeks too early (and
risk see everything lost to a late frost) or two weeks too late getting
a poor crop.

Regards,
Martin Brown