Gardening by Night

            While I’m told it can be done (and the pictures look real pretty) I’m not seriously out gardening at night. But what I am doing is PLANNING my garden at night…Why? Because Thurman called today to say “We gotta plant tomorrow!” (See Karlen race to buy plants on a Sunday because she thought this was happening next week.)

            A cross check of my Ligon & Bobo funeral home planting calendar to Thurman and Miss Duff’s Edward’s Feed version shows a slight overlap of days in which above ground planting should take place. But all calendars agree that Monday (May 4th), has you planting in the sign of the breasts, which is the most nurturing sign of all for above ground crops.

            So for those following along in your hymnals over there, planting on Monday, May 5^th --for everything that sprigs out of the earth and above the ground is ideal. (If you did this over the weekend, you were covered as well.) Above ground plants include: tomatoes, corn, okra, peppers, squash…you know, those things that you pick not pull up from the earth. Below ground crops (such as taters, beets, carrots, onions) are best planted when the moon is waning. (The time between a full and a new moon is best.)

And lest you’re laughing over there thinking this is all hogwash, well, laugh away. I’ve done it both ways and I’m here to tell you it makes a difference.

            Case in point, last season (which started a tad earlier than this season, yet a bit later than the year before) I found myself nearly missing out on potato planting all together owing to the moisture in my soil. With time running out, I finally got my potato slips in the ground in May, planting for which sadly, did not time out on a below crop sign.

            Thinking I’d just test this little theory, I plugged my potatoes in the ground on a day like today (i.e. perfect for above ground, but not below). In a few weeks time I called up ol Thurman and said, “Come see my plants!”

            Outside on “Potato Row” was the greenest, lushest bunch of potato leaves you ever did see. “Why these potatoes look to be even healthier than last year’s” I bragged, to which Thurman pulled out his pocket knife and said, “Dig.”

            It wasn’t time to dig, as the potatoes were not full term, but I knew that even at this stage I could probably have a nice evening meal of new potatoes, so dig I did. (And I dug. And I dug. And I dug.)

            And what, pray tell, did I dig up? Absolutely nothing…Well, buttons you could call them. There was nothing happening to my potatoes beneath the soil.

            “How could the leaves be so lush and these taters so pitiful?” I asked.

            “Because them leaves is above ground” explained Thurman. “The moon was tugging on that part the day you planted.”

            Believe it or don’t. Everybody’s got their own way of doing this garden thing. All I’m saying is that when it comes to almanacs, signs and planting by the moon and the advice of Thurman, I’m with Thurman, after all his family’s been doing this for more generations than I can count.