Moon planting - wierd or not?

I first heard about moon planting from my 90 year old neighbor when I came to Australia 7 years ago.  He was our landlord and grew the most amazing vegetables.  He also sprayed chemicals to kill the bugs, so I did not agree with everything he was doing.  I put the moon planting in the back of my mind as mumbo jumbo.   Moon planting always seems to be portrayed with illustrations that quite frankly made me feel a bit uncomfortable.  Then I began to research the subject a little more, and it all seems so logical - not mumbo jumbo at all!

The moon has tremendous pull on the earth - it is the moons force that pulls the mass of oceans back and forth creating the tides. In order to get to understand the whole subject I had to put it into simple terms, and for some people this might be simplifying it too much, but bear with me.  While the moon is waxing (getting bigger) the force pulls plants that grow above the ground up into the atmosphere.  While the moon is waning (getting smaller) the force pulls plants deep into the ground.  I found this website that has a little calendar alongside http://aussieorganicgardening.com  telling you what you should be planting on what date. Much easier than trying to figure it out myself :)

 I will give this a try, mainly because I was planning on planting out some carrots and root crops anyway this weekend.

 All these seeds came from Mr Fothergills , and I am interested to see how the seed tape works, as in the past I have always overcrowded my carrot beds.  The harlequin carrots seem amazing to me, and I cant wait to see all that color on my plate!  I lose track of how many times we tip out the rain gauge - it seems a waste...  I want to get the carrots in though because they take soo long till harvest - I should be harvesting these in July - yipee!

 My seedlings are growing long and leggy, and I suspect they need a good dose of sunshine.

 the silverbeet especially are very unhappy.  If this weather continues I might move them inside under some lights.  I can't imagine doing this in the tropics.... surely the rain will slow down soon.

 I also had some green bean seeds soaking ready to plant out and this is supposedly the wrong time to plant them - oh well.  Hopefully the green beans don't ascribe to the moon planting schedule and the carrots do!

In the past I have tried to keep track of planting and harvest time, so will try that again on an excel spreadsheet.  I know that Erica at   Northwest edible life  in Seattle does that in a big way - (I would never keep this updated) does anyone else do that?  Since I also want to continuous sow the carrots every two weeks I will be able to monitor whether those seeds planted outside of the moon time grow any differently.

We live in a remote area and the night sky is always marvelous to look at - no big city lights dimming the twinkling stars in our backyard!  I looked up at the moon the other evening and that is what got me thinking about this subject.  I have often taken comfort in these words, knowing that the same moon shines down on my loved ones scattered around the globe.

I See the Moon and the Moon Sees Me

Under the shade of the old oak tree

God bless the light that shines on me

and shine on the ones I love...