I had intended to write part two of this blog series on The Village about "The Square", the central heart of any village, where people come to meet, a place of playing, relaxing, entertainment and plenty of gossip. But, I'll save that for another time. I was so impressed by what is being done in the garden, the one that I could barely maintain alone, that I thought it appropriate to continue with the same theme.

I looked out the window the other day and there was Julio, sowing seeds. One part of the garden that was previously replete with weeds and shrubs and brush, was neatly cleaned off, with a seemingly new, fresh layer of loose soil, parted into rows. ¡Que bueno! Anyway, I went down, through the old wooden doors and we started chatting. First off, I complemented him on how great this all looked. I asked what he was planting and he told me there were Habas (a type of bean), onions, two types of lettuce and garlic (yet to be sowed). He quickly noted why he hadn't planted the garlic yet. And, I thought the answer most interesting.

Apparently, garlic, among other plants of a similar family, such as onions, shallots, etc, grow underground, so it is important that the root/shoot ratio is such that it leads to the garlic being firmly rooted, as opposed to sprouting (shooting) too high, and thus falling over under its own weight. That way, the garlic would not grow as large. So, as Julio explained, it was necessary to wait until the correct lunar cycle, ostensibly so that the garlic can take better root. He didn't go into any further detail than this.

Where the garlic will be planted (back, left)------------>


But, I surmise that the reason is two-fold. 1) Moonlight. The light from a full moon can be, relatively speaking, quite intense. That is, the sunlight reflected off the moon (particularly in the days at or around full) at night can be sufficient to contribute to increased photosynthesis in plants. For most, the the root/shoot ratio is robust enough for this not often to be a problem. But, apparently, for garlic, moonlight has a noticeable affect on growth. Makes sense. 2) Gravity. Tides are primarily caused by the balance of gravitational attraction from the sun and moon. Since we are always at more or less the same distance from the sun and the earth spins, for all intents and purposes, at a constant rate, the sun's affect is steady varying cyclically day/night. But, the moon revolves around the earth every 28 days or so, thus its position relative to, say, any given patch of garlic, affects from which direction gravity is tugging. The most noticeable, result of this are ocean tides. But, body tides within the solid earth also exist and are measurable. I don't know exactly what type of effect this might have on garlic growth, but all life has evolved for billions of years alongside the effect of the moon. So, all life, including the human animal, is influenced by it, garlic, possibly quite sensitive to it.

So, there you have it. We often consider the necessity of sunlight in the garden, but rarely, the influence of the moon. In my opinion, this is the type of traditional knowledge that we are lacking in our high-tech, super-fast, throw-away society. People have possessed this sort of knowledge for years, but it is in danger of being lost should we not pay attention to the world of which we are a small part. ¡Viva Julio y su huerto!

Paz,
Grant