Gardening with Guyton - Readiness for Winter

---

May is underway and the season is turning. If you haven't seen the change of colour in the leaves yet, you soon will, especially if you live where early frosts bite. As the green drains from the leaves and yellows, oranges, reds and browns are revealed, activity in the garden slows down to match the pace of plant growth and the cooler temperatures. The moon exerts the same influences she did during summer, only they have less immediacy about them as everything settles down in readiness for winter.

There's a lot of moisture in the air over this period and it's there that we see the 'hand' of the moon, drawing water from the land into the air and holding it there in those cooler conditions. Fogs and mists are more common around this time and there's sure to be annoyed air travellers wishing it wasn't so.

If the weather where you are stays warm, and it certainly has pushed the boundaries this year, you'll be able to get seeds underway with ease as the combination of moist conditions and warmth provides the ideal seed bed and growing conditions.

I'm sowing green crops now, to cover the soil over winter and to encourage the formation of humus as those plants expire later on. In the meantime, the soil organisms that play such an important role in my garden, will be protected and nourished by the standing green crops of lupin, oat, mustard and the coloured silver beets that I like to include in plentiful amounts, to the mix. That combination is ideal for all of those processes, and provides something to eat as a bonus.

The moisty-month-of-May begins with a week of new moon influence and the 1st to the 10th are not the time for sowing. Cultivate and prepare. When the 11th rolls around and with it the start of the First Quarter period, sow your seed. If you have other favourite sow-in-autumn vegetables, get those into the soil as well. That doesn't, however, include root crops, which do badly if sown during this moon phase.

Once the calendar reaches the 20th, the sowing period is over and once again cultivation becomes the most rewarding garden activity. If you hold off for the 25th and 26th and sow your root crop seeds then, your chances of success are greatly enhanced. The barren period that follows and lasts until the end of the month offers very little to the May gardener. It would be a good time to check your stored seeds for signs of mouse or insect attack, sharpen up your digging and pruning tools and find some good books to read when autumn delivers her seasonal rains.