April 2003
Telephoning the publisher to ask for a copy of 'R J Harris's Moon Gardening' to be sent to her', the young lady was spontaneously and disarmingly frank.
"When I heard about him, I just knew he had to be potty," she said. "Moon gardening and all that."
She confirmed who she was talking about: "R J Harris. He's a gardener; he runs a garden -- an estate garden -- somewhere in Cornwall, doesn't he? And he's published this book about moon gardening."
She went on: "But then, one day, I went down to the allotment to dig. And I was so surprised; the soil was just like multi-purpose compost, it was so dry.
"Usually, it's sticky and heavy and really hard work."
Leaning on her spade to catch her breath, she remembered what she had heard about the potty gardener and his book and recalled what day it was.
"The new moon!" she said "When the water table is at its lowest level and the moisture content of the top soil is at its least as a consequence.
"That was why it was so dry and the digging was so much easier."
She knew then, she said, what it was that she had to buy for her husband's coming birthday. Hence her call to the manual's publisher.
p The above account, now pinned to the wall of an amused publisher's office, surely underlines one of the many fundamental truths of moon gardening, as moon gardeners claim to understand them. It is: understand the moon's performance and how it influences what happens in the garden, and the work becomes easier, as well as done in a better organised kind of way.
rjh
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