Peas & Lilacs

      We planted the first round of peas yesterday in the greenhouse & it made my heart sing that  ‘it’s almost spring’ song!  Our son Elijah, his wife CC & their 8 month old son Zadok were my planting crew today. It brought back many sweet memories of when the boys were small.  We often tried to save all the larger seeds like peas, melons, and, squash for them to plant. Those seed are too big for our vacuum seeder & need to be done by hand. I loved to see them holding those seeds in their chubby little hands & shoving them into the soil.  I can’t wait till Zadok is old enough to help plant. Today he was content to be part of the crew by playing in his playpen & yelling and squealing at our dog Libby. It’s so good to have a baby in the greenhouses again!

     Years ago I had an elderly lady tell me to watch my lilac buds & when they were the size of mouse ears it was time to plant peas.  I’ve always  been intrigued by those bits of folklore & recently found out that there is actually a term for this called phenology.  It’s a Greek word that means ” the science of appearances” & is all about watching  things like the color change of plants in the fall, insect hatchings, bird migrations & moon phases to plant & harvest by.   I have been planting by the moon phases in my garden for the past few years & have noticed a difference.  Whenever possible I follow  those same rules in our greenhouse plantings.  We were a day early by the moon for our peas, but that’s the only day we were all available.

 There’s a bit more to it than this but the basics rule is:

Plant above ground crops by a waxing moon.  From new moon to full.

Plant below ground crops by a waning moon.  From full moon to new.

      I’ll post again on this & go into more depth another day.  It’s really fascinating. I surely don’t know the science of how all this works but  I know it does.

Here’s a few more interesting planting & harvesting signs for our area.