Claire’s Gardening with the Moon in October 2024
Moon gazing: The Harvest Full Moon Claire’s Gardening with the Moon in October 2024
And here comes autumn, season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.
Letting go
The trees are about to tell us how good it can be to let things go, and you can put those fallen leaves to good use by collecting them up to make leaf mould. You can just pile them up against a sheltered wall, make an enclosure out of chicken wire, or even stuff them into sacks/bags - so long as you make sure the air and moisture can get in to help with the decomposition process. It’ll take a couple of years for the leaves to rot down into a wonderful soil conditioner for you to use on your garden.
The Full Moon
The Full Moon in October is the Harvest Moon but also the Seed Fall Moon, or Hunter's Moon. Before refrigeration, people in the Northern Hemisphere spent October preparing food stores for the coming winter.
| Moon Phases for Wirksworth, England, United Kingdom in October 2024 | |||||||
| New Moon | First Quarter | Full Moon | Third Quarter | ||||
| 2 Oct | 19:49 | 10 Oct | 19:55 | 17 Oct | 12:26 | 24 Oct | 09:03 |
Working with the soil and your plants
The descending moon this month is from the 1st – 8th and 22nd – 31st. These are the best times to plant or do any work with the soil in your garden, like moving plants and shrubs that are in the wrong place or mulching/top dressing with compost.
Plant individual garlic cloves in the afternoons of the 3rd, 19th, 20th or 21st
The optimum afternoons to plant spring flowering bulbs this month are the 4th, 5th, 6th, 22nd, and 23rd. Crocus flowers are one of the best early sources of nectar for bumblebees and they look lovely naturalised in lawns.
Plant out any evergreen shrubs and trees on the 7th, 24th, and 25th. If you have some spring cabbages or rhubarb crowns to plant out or divide, then these leaf/water days will also be good.
Autumn by Aia Leu
Gathering
It’s high time to gather the last of your fruit and veg in before the weather really turns. Choosing an optimum day, during the fortnight when the moon is ascending (9th – 21st) can really make a difference to the keeping qualities of your crops.
Harvest apples, damsons, and any other top fruits on the 9th, 10th, or 18th (these are fruit/warmth days).
Lift your spuds, beetroot, and carrots on the 20th or 21st (these are root/earth days)
Flower/air and leaf/water days are few and far between during this month’s ascending moon so use the root/earth days (see above) for harvesting leafy crops like spinach and the fruit/warmth days for flower crops like cauliflower.
Try to completely avoid harvesting (or doing any other sensitive work in your garden) on the 12th, 13th, 16th, and 17th as there are no helpful influences coming to Earth from the cosmos.
Sowing seeds
As you harvest and clear your veg beds there’s still time to sow an autumn mix of green manures to keep the soil covered over winter.
If you sow your seeds during the week before the full moon their germination should be quicker and stronger. Direct sow green manures on the afternoon of the 11th. Or perhaps sow a wildflower lawn mix to increase the biodiversity in your garden (make sure it contains some very useful Yellow Rattle as it’ll stop the grass from becoming too dominant).
Most other plants sown in October will fare best if they’re overwintered in a greenhouse or cold frame.
The root/earth afternoon of the 11th is a good one to sow hardy salads or micro greens like radish or beetroot.
Sow hardy broad beans and peas for early crops next year on the 10th, or the morning of the 11th. Use these same fruit/warmth days for sowing sweet peas in deep pots for early summer flowering.
If you have questions for me that relate to my blog - Moon and growing related - please send them to me using the Earth Pathways contact page. I would also like to direct curious readers to the UK Biodynamic Association website.
Thank you for joining me on this growing journey.
Claire Hattersley
River Teign by Danielle Barlow
