Celestial Planting

Kathryn Aunger (left) with Tweed and District Horticultural Society President Joan Morton

Members of the Tweed and District Horticultural Society learned about planting using the celestial calendar with guest speaker Kathryn Aunger.

Kathryn, along with Rosemary Tayler and Cesar Gomez produced the first bio-dynamic calendar for our area called the Celestial Planting Calendar 2015. Local artist Sue Vander Wey did the art work for the calendar.

Kathryn in her power point demonstration showed us many examples of calendars and how they changed over the years. The first historical calendar is dated back to 8000BC in Scotland. Many calendars have references to stars and constellations. There were samples of Islamic, Jewish, Myan, Aztec and Greek to name a few.

Some interesting facts she shared with us were:

-In 1792 the first Farmer’s Almanac was produced. It is still published today but a lot of advertising can be found in it which makes it very hard to find the info you are looking for.

-In our calendars today, the sun is the center of the universe and the moon has an important influence on plants. Everything revolves around the sun and it takes 11 years to do a complete cycle. The last time being in 2013.

-The moon acts as a big mirror which affects tides, water and cycles in people and animals.

-The moon travels in an oval shape. Perigee is when the moon is close. Apogee is when the moon is far away. This cycle takes approx. 28 days.

-When the moon is high above the equator, this forces water and energy up. It is time to prune and pick. When the plant energy is downward, its time to plant root crops.

-The phases of the moon cause increasing and decreasing light conditions. During a full moon we should cut grass. During an eclipse we should do nothing. Root crops should be planted before the 3^rd quarter.

-The 12 constellations also play an important role.

-Maria Tunn from United States did a lot of research of plant and harvest trials over the years when she produced her calendars. Slides of plants seeded at different times showed remarkable difference if they were planted when suggested by the calendar. Also crops harvest lasted much longer when harvested with the calendar.

Kathryn showed us some samples of other calendars produced and how they compare to her calendar. This new calendar is colour coded so it makes it easy for a beginner to use but it also has very detailed information which is great for those with a lot of background in biodynamic or very helpful for naturopaths. Kathryn answered questions from the floor and had reference material on display and calendars for sale for $18. – submitted by Linda Holmes

COMING UP….

March 21….10:30 am….Using sharpie pens, children will design a garden scene on a canvas tote with local artist, Bob Pennycook.

Please pre-register at the Library.

April 7….Meeting….Naneen Tyner, a local basket weaver, will talk about the ancient art of basket weaving. Naneen has been a participant on the Tweed and Area Studio tour for the past few years.

April 18…10:30 am….Children’s workshop with Joan Morton….creating spring flowers using coloured tissue paper.

Please pre-register at the Library.

 GENERAL INTEREST EVENTS…

April 2-4…Peterborough Garden Show at the Evinrude Centre, 911 Monaghan Road, Peterborough. Admission $7.00.

April/May…Stonepath Greenhouses, Tweed (613-478-1675) and Farmgate Gardens, Foxboro (613-967-1581) offer spring planter workshops in April and May. Please contact for dates and time.