The Waxing Spring Moon

The moon is in its waxing stage.  That means it is moving past the dark, new moon stage and getting brighter as it moves toward the full moon.  Many gardeners plant by the moon and the signs.  I don't use the signs too much, and you can consult an almanac for what are the correct dates for your area.  Generally, my grandma said, "Waxing moon, plant things that fruit above ground; waning moon, plant things that fruit below ground."  So since the moon is waxing, I was in the garden first thing this morning checking to see if I might be able to plant some more lettuce this weekend.  I think I can as soon as the soil dries a bit from all of the heavy rains we have had.  My raised beds drain very well, so I should be able to poke a few seeds into the lovely black soil.  I'm using pelleted lettuce seed this year.  I've not tried that before, so I'm anxious to see how it germinates and grows.  It does make planting lettuce easy and the spacing of it a breeze.  Hopefully, it will mean much less thinning, which I always think of as a waste of perfectly good plants.

This week I was at a national education conference, and I had the opportunity to visit with some women from Wisconsin.  Although they had only 7 inches of snow this year, they had not even started their tender plants inside yet.  I could see the anticipation in their eyes as they talked about being able to put those first tomato seeds in flats in a few days! As I walked to the garden this morning looking for signs of my potatoes sprouting and marveling at the peas and early lettuce coming along, I thought of my Wisconsin friends just waiting to get their hands in the dirt and begin that cycle of planting and harvest.  I didn't have the heart to tell them that my pepper plants, still under the grow lights are 6 inches tall.  The tomatoes and eggplants are about 4 inches tall.  I know the anxious anticipation of planting.  I just crumbled the dirt in my hands, said a prayer of thanks for sun and rain and came in and sorted the seed packets for about the tenth time.

Spring

Spring is here once again.  All the typical signs are evident:  the peepers are singing in the ditch, the crocus and daffodils are blooming the country roads are littered with dead skunks.  It baffles me that of all the beauty spring brings, the flattened bodies of skunks are one of the first signs.  I guess it doesn't pay to be one of the first ones out in spring.  On a brighter note, this morning there were rabbits grazing on the few green shoots of grass out by the garden.

Today it is in the low 60's and the early seeds sitting on the counter were calling my name.  So since the moon phase is almost right, the ground was not cold, the soil had just the right tilth and I could no longer resist the call to get my hands in the dirt, I planted some peas.  Just one short row.  I have plenty of seed, so I will probably have to plant again, but just working the soil and placing the plump, wrinkled seeds in the earth was wonderful.  Sun and rain and they will grow.

The early seedlings I started indoors are coming up.  The tiny necks of the plant poke through the soil and then lift their head and unfurl their first two leaves.  I always feel that life is affirmed when a seed sprouts and begins its life.  Grandpa and I bend over the young plants and marvel at how such a tiny seed will become a sturdy pepper plant or a ranging tomato that will take over the garden.  All is takes is someone to plant the seed and give it food, water and light.  People are a lot like that too.  All we need to do is give each other care and food, water and light.  Affirm life.