PHIL’S NOTE: This column and
information appeared in the Frankfort, KY State
Journal on Sunday, April 9. All planting times are EDT for USDA Planting
Zone 6b. Adjust for your zones.
Moon moves to dark phase;
great days midweek
Here’s this week’s information about
the phases of the moon and signs of the zodiac.
The
moon moves from the light to the dark phase at 2:08 a.m. Tuesday with the
arrival of the full moon, which will remain in force until the next new, or
light, moon at 8:16 a.m. on April 26.
Monday be planting only those veggies that produce above the ground, if you are following
just the moon’s phases. Then beginning at about 3 a.m. Tuesday, only those that
produce beneath the ground.
Check the list elsewhere here for those veggies that can
safely be planted now since the danger of frost and/or freezing weather
continues for a few more weeks.
The
signs: the flowering sign Libra (the reins or
forearms) rules today. This is a bloom day and flowers planted today
should bloom and do so abundantly.
On Tuesday, the very fertile sign Scorpio (the secrets) comes
to rule and hangs around for Wednesday and Thursday. With the moon moving to
the dark phase in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, these are great days for
planting any below-ground producers from the early-garden list.
Our monthly series of
so-so signs begins Friday and continues through April 20. While not the
greatest for planting, they are OK. What they are great for is making changes
like stopping smoking, starting a diet or exercise program, weaning small
animals or children, scheduling elective surgery – anything that requires a
change.
They are Sagittarius/legs through Aquarius/legs. When you add
the fertile sign Pisces (the feet) on April 21-22, that’s a nine-day stretch
for making changes, plus the Pisces days are great for planting below-ground
producers.
Gardening benefits
mind,
body and soul
It’s April and it’s time to get out, get your hands in the
good earth and plant something!
No matter if your garden is a half-acre of produce you sell
at the Farmer’s Market or if it’s a couple of tomato plants in a barrel by the
porch, the benefits of gardening are well documented beyond providing you fresh
produce for your table – there are additional benefits to mind, body and soul.
As you might imagine, I believe all planting – no matter how
much or little - is enhanced by doing it according to the phases of the moon
and signs of the zodiac. I will continue to provide you that information each
week throughout the gardening season right here on the pages of Your Hometown
Newspaper and all the electronic platforms listed below, including
state-journal. com. It involves nothing more than planting on the best days and
coupling that with good gardening techniques like watering, cultivating and
fertilizing as necessary.
Many of gardening’s benefits can’t be measured like you can
count the number of tomatoes on a vine or pounds of green beans per row; these
are the “intangibles.”
>Back to the earth: The scriptures tell us we were formed
from the earth and to the earth we will return when our lives are over. That
“attraction” to the source provides us with a natural desire, I believe, to
plant something and watch it grow. Have you noticed – and maybe you are one of
them - even people who claim they don’t garden put out a couple of tomato
plants!
>A sense of
satisfaction: There
is something about watching a tomato develop on the vine, growing from a tiny
blossom, not unlike a baby grows from helplessness to adulthood.
There’s satisfaction in picking a “mess of beans” or pulling
an onion or radish from the ground, rinsing the dirt from it and taking a bite.
And then there are turnips right from the garden in the fall - cold and crisp,
just like the day itself. Oh my!
You just can’t get that from something you pick out of a bin
at the store, no matter if it is “locally grown and garden fresh” simply
because you didn’t grow it in your
garden. And as you consume your veggie, you think, “I grew that! I planted it,
cultivated it, protected it.” To me that’s celebrating a minor miracle.
>Sharing: During the peak of the gardening
season, I love giving – and receiving – a sack with a few tomatoes, maybe some
beans – or whatever the surplus may be. As tough as we might like to think we
are, offering something you’ve grown is sharing your heart. And accepting it is
embracing a tiny bit of love and caring from the giver.
My mentor in things of gardening by the moon and signs once
told me you’re not supposed to say “thank you” when someone gives you something
from the garden because it’s from the heart.
I said, “But Mr. Van Meter, I was always taught to thank
people for things others give me.” His name was Buford Van Meter, a member of
my first church in Frankfort when I was but a mere lad from the big city of
Lexington and, by his own description, a “stingy old Dutchman.”
He said, “That’s right, Preacher, for most things – but not
gifts from the garden because they are from the heart.”
Exercise yours this summer – plant a garden!
Your spring garden
Here’s what can be planted now as found in Home Vegetable Gardening in Kentucky, published
by the University of Kentucky Extension Service and the UK College of
Agriculture.
Now: spinach, radishes, peas, snow peas,
onion sets, collards, radishes, rhubarb crowns, rutabaga, turnips, asparagus,
beets, Irish potatoes, carrots, chard, kale, kohlrabi, onion seeds, parsley,
parsnips, cabbage, leaf lettuce, lettuce head plants, Bibb lettuce plants,
onion plants, broccoli plants, Brussels sprouts plants, cauliflower plants,
celery
Caution: Don’t plant if the ground is wet,
no matter the phase or sign.
Frost: the last statistical date for frost
isn’t until sometime between Derby Day (the first Saturday in May, the 6th) and
Mother’s Day (the second Sunday in May, which is the 14th). I opt for the later
date, just to be safe.
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