Moon Calendar September-October 2025
Cosmic planting calendar: Let nature lead
By Monique Macfarlane
All the prep work in the garden now really pays off for feasting on and preserving the abundance in the coming months. At times it can feel overwhelming with everything there is to get done, so as we head towards the traditional summer garden planting dates of late October, I pick particular things to focus on, and let the rest fall behind in the flow.
Some years I prioritise fruiting crops, such as tomatoes, eggplants and chillies, or beans and snowpeas, or pumpkins and melons. It could be prioritising a steady supply of leafy greens for salads through the onslaught of hotter temperatures. It could be saving seed from multiple varieties this season. It could be placing attention on good watering and nutrition.
Having a focus brings the possibility of a sense of accomplishment and learning. Often when we leave nature to her own devices, she flourishes the best, on her own timeline and strength. Knowing this can pave the way to noticing how different plants flourish if we step back from them a little.
It can also give us space to research, discuss and trial new methods and ways of growing if we place a focus on them. Say for tomatoes, do you stake with a central leader? Use an adjustable string-and-frame system to encourage the full potential of height and harvest in the plants? Try a bush variety? Try different colours, varieties, or add in the biodiversity mulches underneath?
By harnessing this approach season after season, year after year, slowly our knowledge, our toolkit and understanding grows with ease. It’s also not a ‘one and done’ style of learning – as often I can focus on something, feel like I have understood it, and then we never have a season like it to replicate for 8 or 15 years!
So perhaps really, the best thing to always focus on is the grace of letting nature lead.
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Monique Macfarlane is a holistic food systems facilitator, teaching biodynamics, planting by the moon, no-dig food growing and self-sufficiency. See www.natural-wisdom.net
Monique co-creates with organic, biodynamic, regenerative, no-till, and natural principles on eight hectares in Waihi that includes a small market garden, orchard, pastoral grazing, chickens and agroforestry.
Images: Arina-Ulyasheva, VeraPetruk
