Mint and Moon Tests

This lunar cycle I started some new research. As part of my residency with the Northern Sustainable Darkroom I am doing some experiments with mint and the moon.

The moon has a huge influence on me, affecting my weight, cycle, creativity, concentration, mood and energy throughout the month - I've had to learn to work with it, rather than trying to be consistent. I've dabbled with gardening in sync with the moon but not consistently enough to see how it has impacted on things, I'm really curious to understand how it affects plants more though.

For many moons indigenous healers and medicine practitioners have observed the natural rhythmic behaviour of plants throughout the lunar cycle. Depending on when they are harvested, a plant’s chemicals and water content varies throughout the moon phases, therefore affecting it’s medicinal potency. I'm interested to see what effects the moon has on the plant's potency when using my mint plant to develop photographic film.

By regularly testing the same plant, recipe, film and process, will there be any noticeable differences? What will they be if so? Will the growing season also have an effect on the results? Surely as the plant matures there will be some chemical changes too? I wonder if I'll notice anything new about my own behaviours in the process? Can I keep to these control measures when my own natural cycle is inconsistent?

I'm interested to see...

I literally have no idea where this will go or if I have the skills to persist with this for long enough to see the results. I'm really looking forward to hanging out with my mint plant and the moon more though.

Where I’ll be charting the moon and my progress over the next few months…