SHRUBS -- VEGETABLES -- MOISTURE: Saturday 30 November 2002
MC asks: in moon gardening, when planting, are shrubs treated differently from vegetables?
"They are not", says the head gardener, "provided that the vegetables in question are root vegetables or tubers.
"Like the shrub, the carrot and the parsnip and the beetroot and the potato, they all develop below ground.
"The cabbage, on the other hand, and the lettuce, develops above ground.
"The below-grounders are planted/transplanted/sown at the start of the appropriate moon's first quarter. Their post-planting/sowing fortnight of steadily increasing moisture content in the top soil thanks to the rising water table creates the root- and tuber-development conditions that are best for them.
"The above-grounders' need for moisture is less."
All of this, of course, presumes that Mr Harris's strictures regarding bed preparation, bed feeding, plant/soil management and crop harvesting are observed. The entire regime must be applied if perfection is to be achieved.
