Knowing When to Plant Your Garden

April showers bring May flowers.

May snow brings garden woes.

Which is why I watch the moon for planting

So that at the weather I will not be ranting.

God gave the moon for times and seasons,

Which is why we plant knowing these reasons.

How observant are you? One year I noticed the weather was always cold during full moon.

I think my Dad once mentioned that to me.

So one year when I noted that full moon was the second week in May, and that the next full moon would not occur until after the May-31st-last-frost cut off date, I planted my entire garden mid-May.

By the end of May, the garden flourished as rains fell day after day. But by then, the ground was so wet, that people who waited to plant the end of May, early June, couldn't plant.

Farmer's Almanac is based on the moon, and while we sometimes take that with a grain of salt, it does coincide with the Algonquin Indians' mention of the May full moon as the 'Corn Moon,' meaning you could plant after that full moon.

So now I always observe the moon for planting my garden.