Many garden remedies and solutions have been passed down through the years, and with the growing need and interest in organic gardening these "old wives tales" are proving to be as effective as ever.
However, the new generation of gardeners are producing their own organic solutions to many age old gardening problems which are proving to be just as effective.
Choose folklore for the month of:
January
Grass that grows in Janiveer
Grows no more all the year
St Vincent's Day (22nd January)
Remember on St Vincent's Day
If that the sun his beams display
For 'tis a token, bright and clear,
Of prosperous weather all the year.
If in January, the sun much appear
March and April pay full dear
If Janiver's calends be summerly gay
Twill be wintry weather to the calends of May
February
Candlemas Day (2nd February)
If Candlemas Day be fair and bright
Winter will have another flight
If on Candlemas Day it be shower and rain
Winter is gone and will not come again
Much February snow
A fine summer doth show
March
Sweet peas sown on St Patrick's Day are said to produce larger and more fragrant blooms.
The pious prune their roses on St Patrick's Day
the worldly on Grand National Day
A windy March foretells a fine May
March winds and April showers bring forth May flowers
April
When you hear the cuckoo shout
'Tis time to plant your tatties out
Plant kidney beans, if you be so willing,
When elm leaves are as big as a shilling,
When elm leaves are as big as a penny
You must plant beans if you mean to have any
May
Who doffs his coat on a Winter's day
Will gladly put it on in May
If the sage bush thrives and grows
The master's not master -
And he knows!
June
St Vitus Day (15th June)
If St Vitus day be rainy weather
It will rain for forty days together
If on the eighth of June it rain
That foretells a wet harvest, men sayen
July
If the first of July be rainy weather
'Twill rain, more or less, for four weeks together
St Swithin's Day (15th July)
St Swithin's Day, if thou dost rain
For forty days it will remain.
St Swithin's Day, if thou be fair
For forty sayd, 'twill rain no mair.
'Til St Swithin's day be past
The apples be not fit to taste
Plant your seeds in a row
One for the pheasant, one for the crow,
One to rot and one to grow.
Cut thistles in May
They grow in a day;
Cut them in June,
That is too soon;
Cut them in July,
Then they die.
August
The kiss of the sun for pardon
The song of the birds for mirth
One is nearer God's heart in a garden
Than anywhere else on earth
The South wind brings wet weather
The North wind wet and cold together
The West wind brings us rain
The East wind blows it back again
September
Evening red and morning grey
Are sure signs of a fine day
September blow soft
'Till the fruit's in the loft
Fair weather first day of September
Fair for the month
If you wish to live and thrive
Let the spider run alive
A tree planted at Michaelmas
Will surely not go amiss
An apple a day keeps the doctor away
October
In the decay of the moon
A cloudy morning bodes a fair afternoon
If the wind is in the west on the 12th October
a mild winter will follow
October hath always
One and twenty fine days
If, while working in the garden
your rake falls prong upwards
there will be heavy rain next day
Advice on choosing shelter in a thunderstorm:
Beware the oak, it draws the stroke
Avoid the ash, it courts the flash
Creep under a thorn, it will keep you from harm
November
Beechwood fires burn bright and clear
If the logs are kept a year
Chestnut's only good they say
If for years 'tis stored away
Birch and firwood burn too fast
Blaze too bright and do not last
But ashwood green and ashwood brown
Are fit for a Queen with a golden crown
Oaken logs, if dry and old
Keep away the winter's cold
Poplar gives a bitter smoke
Fills your eyes and makes you choke
Elmwood burns like churchyard mould
Even the very flames are cold
Applewood will scent the room
Pearwood smells like flowers in bloom
But ashwood wet and ashwood dry
A King may warm his slippers by
St Catherine's Day (25th November)
St Catherine's foul or fair
So it will be next Februair
The direction of the wind at midnight on St Clement's Day (23rd November)
forecast the conditions that will prevail until Candlemas (2nd February)
December
Onion skins very thin
Mild winter coming in.
Onion skins thick and tough
Coming winter very rough.
