Today is a Full Moon day, this month it’s called a Strong Sun Moon, though there’s little sign of the Sun at the moment.  As Amsterdam Elderflowers are in full bloom right now, I thought it may be a particularly good day to harvest them. My diary says it is a Flower and Fruit Day but just what does that mean? I wrote a post about the phases and astrological significance of Lunar Herb Gardening some time ago and here’s a nice webpage on Our Gardening Gang which goes into some detail about gardening activities (though it call them chores…) which are best done at certain times of the lunar cycle.

In a couple of weeks I’m running a Mugwort workshop, very close to the New Moon and Midsummer’s Day. We’ll be harvesting flowering Mugwort and processing it straight away. The New Moon itself is not a good day for gardening activities, so we will be meeting the day before, which is another Flower and Fruit Day. There is not always the freedom to plan harvesting and gardening around the Moon but it if you haven’t already tried it, perhaps at least considering it will add an enriching dimension to your herbal activities.

If the sun dries off the Elder flowers today, I shall be collecting a few. In a couple of days I shall be planting some Ginger which is sprouting in my kitchen, doing it now may slow it’s growth. So what herbal activities will you be doing on this Full Moon?