Meet The Moon Gardener

Chantal Lemoine

I was born in Haiti, and after my family fled from the Duvalier dictatorship, I spent my childhood continent-hopping with my geologist father, my mom and two brothers, living in Sudan and France before moving to the US in my teens.

I finished high school in New York, and graduated from Swarthmore College before going to medical school at Howard University in Washington, D.C.
I did my residency in Internal Medicine and my subspecialty training in Rheumatology at LAC/USC Medical Center. In between raising a family, I practiced medicine for 25 years until health issues forced me into early retirement.

After several falls, and 3 back and neck surgeries, my life became a cycle of pain, nerve blocks and pain medication, which triggered a severe depression. My garden saved me and brought me back to health.

It’s hard to describe, but I literally felt pulled to get up from my sickbed to go out and garden… When I realized that this pull I was feeling corresponded to the start of planting seasons in my part of Southern California, I started thinking that perhaps this mysterious urge had something to do with the moon…

I looked up lunar gardening, did a lot of research, and, having been trained as a scientist, a few experiments of my own, which convinced me.

I have been “gardening by the moon” for 5 years now, and have found being in tune with the lunar cycle to be wonderfully beneficial in my garden as well as other areas of my life.

I am the moon gardener, and I invite you to share my journey into lunar gardening, growing my own vegetables, and harvesting the flowers and herbs I grow to produce infused oils, creams, soaps and other botanical products. A garden can change your life, bring beauty, health and peace to your environment; a garden can heal your soul. Come garden with me…