Planting By The Moon

This week, we will talk about planting by the moon, also known as lunar gardening. Farmers have been using the moon's phases for many years in order to successfully plant. The moon changes almost every night and sometimes you can see it in the daytime. I love full moon nights when the moon first rises. It is just beautiful, especially beautiful out here in the country on the farm. In the city, there were so many houses in the way that it was not easy seeing the moon come up or to see the sunrise for that matter. I am grateful that I can now see the moon when it first rises. It is so nice not to have houses everywhere.

I recently found out that David does some of his planting by the moon. He actually wrote an article on it a while back that I just discovered.

Planting by the moon is easy once you understand the different phases of the moon.

Planting By The Moon

Planting by the moon, seen behind the tree in August of 2023, can affect your garden.

Monday, October 9, 2023

Pecan coffee in my I Love Lucy mug to start the day. What could be better?

Good Monday morning! I was awakened in the dark at 5:31am by barking dogs outside. David had let the puppies out to go potty. I asked Alexa what time it was and then I got up to take my thyroid pill. I decided to stay up because the puppies were still barking. I have to wait for 30 minutes after taking the pill to eat or drink anything but water. I got up, got Ethel outside, got them all back in and then I fed all of the dogs plus Kitty.

Now I am having some coffee and I feel so tired. It is 57° Fahrenheit outside and should get up to 84° today. The air is cool and dry. It feels great.

Today is Columbus Day here in the USA. That means no mail and no banks. It also means no school for most schools around here. But the David's Garden Seeds® Farm Store will be open from 9am to 5pm so come on by for garlic bulbs, fall garden seeds, wildflower seeds, coffee, and fresh eggs.

When I was a kid, we went to school on Columbus Day and learned about the three ships that sailed from Portugal to the Americas in 1492 every year.

Today is also Indigenous People's Day. This is one I had not heard of before but it celebrates the cultures of those who lived in North America before Columbus got here. In one way or another, this holiday has been celebrated by some since 1912. Now some states in the USA celebrate it instead of Columbus Day.

Today is Canadian Thanksgiving so Happy Thanksgiving to all of our Canadian friends!

We have a lot of seed orders to fill this morning plus I still need to plant the grow tower in the Farm Store. I was too lazy to do it yesterday.

In the news today is the fact that Israel is at war with Hamas and the child abuse case involving Ruby Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt. I used to watch the Eight Passengers channel. I used to enjoy it and then Ruby got stricter with her kids. Let's face it. She is an awful mother and I hope she and Jodi never get out of jail/prison. Kevin also seems to be horrible since I found out he tried to get Shari arrested when she went into the home to get clothing for her sisters who the court gave her custody of. What a shame that this family was destroyed.

They finally started putting the tower together after about 4 months of nothing. This is how it looked when they left today.

Guess what? After four months of nothing, the folks putting up the cell tower are back on this way cooler day! They are putting it up!

After 4 months of nothing, we have the beginning of a cell tower!

The holiday proved beneficial to us. We have had a lot more online orders and a lot more customers today. It is 3:35pm and I just finished with the online orders. Also, the last of the customers so far today just left. I have been kept very busy.

Meanwhile, Matt replaced the sensor on the Farm Store stairs and now it works again so I can know if someone is here when I am not in the Farm Store. It is nice and loud.

I made a roast in the Instant Pot tonight. It came out delicious. We are watching Kitchen Nightmares, the new show made in 2023.

While the roast was cooking, I planted my ten sweet potato vines that were in the windowsill rooting. I put them out front by the Farm Store so customers can check them out. The others I planted last week are looking good. None of the many potatoes I planted last week have come up yet.

I grew all of these sweet potato vines on my kitchen windowsill and finished planting them this evening. I hope they all produce an amazing harvest since the gophers ate my others.

Planting By The Moon

I love seeing the moon out here on the farm.

Each night, the moon's shape is just a bit different, ranging throughout the month from not being there to a crescent, then a half, almost full, and full. Then it begins to get small again.

A new moon means you cannot see the moon at all.

A full moon is when you can see a bright circle in the sky at night.

A crescent moon is just a small sliver seen in the sky.

A quarter moon looks like you can see half of the moon.

A waxing moon or waxing gibbous means the part you can see at night is getting bigger. The gravitational pull of the moon gets stronger, pulling moisture in the soil to the surface. This works in greenhouses as well as the garden. The seeds actually absorb more water during this phase. This is also a good time for transplanting as the transplants get more water than usual, helping them ease the shock of being moved from a pot to the ground.

A waning moon or waning gibbous means the part you can see at night is getting smaller. The gravitational pull of the moon gets weaker.

This cycle repeats over and over again, month after month, taking about 28 days to complete.

Tuesday, October 10, 2023

Good Tuesday morning. I woke up starving but I had to wait for 30 minutes after taking my thyroid pill. It is now 8:15am and it is 67° so a bit warmer than yesterday. Matt came and fed all of the outdoor animals this morning which was so nice. I was in here trying to write the home page for a brand new website we are putting together for garden preppers and people who like to be prepared for anything. It was David's idea but getting it started is the hardest part.

I need to go get ready for the day, do the dishes, and start some laundry. Then I need to head over to Fulfillment and fill some more orders before the mailman shows up. It is also pay day for us since yesterday was a holiday so I have to deal with payroll.

It might rain again today and it is sort of dark and gloomy but I will take this kind of day over the horrible heat any time.

We had 2 full bags of outgoing orders today. Lots of folks ordering garlic and seed collections.

The tower men are not working this morning. Some trucks showed up after 9am but only for a few minutes. So far, we have had a few visitors today but no customers. However, we had a ton of orders and we just finished with them. The last one was for $324! I filled it and got it shipped. We have two bags of packages for the mailman to take today. Thank you again to all of our customers who order from us!

It has been sprinkling on and off all day long. The tower men showed up in the afternoon and built some more tower. It started raining quite a bit at 4pm. By 5pm when I closed the store, the tower had more to it.

Here is what the cell tower looked like at 5pm.

I added Native Texas flower seeds to my David's Garden Seeds® Etsy shop because so far only the maroon bluebonnets are selling on there. I stopped and wrote paychecks and then started adding more listings. David has started the eBay store, The Real David's Garden Seeds®. There are other sellers on eBay who are selling our seeds that they bought from us for exorbitant prices, like $18.99. They must be out of their minds.

It continued to rain all evening and was still coming down when I went to bed.

Planting By The Moon

Full moon coming up while it is still light outside.

The four phases for planting by the moon include:

New Moon
1st Quarter Moon
Full Moon
4th Quarter

The new moon (when you can't see the moon) helps the seeds to germinate or come up. The new moon phase is when you should directly sow the seeds into the ground or container for above ground (not roots) fruits and vegetables. This includes spinach, greens, lettuce, kale, Swiss chard, pac choi or bok choy, cauliflower, broccoli, corn, grain, and strawberries.

Wednesday, October 11, 2023

Good Wednesday morning. Each time I woke up in the night, I could hear the rain coming down. It is now 7am and it is still raining! It should stop by 8:45am. It is 66°. I took Ethel out at 6am and it was pretty chilly with the rain coming down.

My housekeeper is coming today and I need to clean up before she gets here. I am so cold in this house. I am also hungry so I need to eat something. I just got a bowl of pumpkin seed granola that I added some golden raisins to. I love raisins. The rain is still coming down. The dogs and the cat have been fed.

The cell tower people are there in the rain and the tower is almost put together. Michelle is cleaning the house. The rain has pretty much stopped now but it is still dreary and grey out.

It is now 3pm. The cell tower is complete but men are still up there. It looks like the rain could start up any minute.

This morning, I came out of my bathroom and the doorknob came off in my hand. It broke right off! I called Matt to put it back on and he said we need a new one since it just broke. Can you believe that? The crap they use to make manufactured homes...It's a wonder they are all standing. The home we built in San Antonio was lived in by us for 18 and a half years. Not once did our family of five ever break a doorknob off of any door in the home. How on earth after just four years of use did a doorknob just fall off?

I got my Quest bill from September 22 in the mail today. They want $550. I paid when I was there but the card shut her system down so she couldn't even find my account. I guess they finally found it. Of course, I get the bill now when in two days I have to take Ethel and Kitty for their yearly rabies visits and you know that will cost a small fortune for sure. And next Friday, I get a $1500 crown. Yay! And the week after is when all of the rest of the monthly bills are due.

Planting By The Moon

This is the red moon from May 15, 2022. It looks fake but I snapped this with my iPhone.

Of course, planting by the moon does not mean that you have to plant at night in the dark. You can plant during the day while the moon cycle starts with the new moon which means a moonless night. You can buy calendars with the moon cycles marked on the days.

As the moon waxes or gets more visible in the night sky, you can plant annual flowers as well as the above ground vegetables and fruits mentioned yesterday. The waxing moonlight encourages the leaves and stems on your plants to grow.

Now after the moon is full for a few days, it begins to wane or get smaller. While the moon is waning, it is best to plant your root plants. If you are new to gardening, roots are anything that grows below the surface of the earth like carrots, onions, beets, radishes, turnips, shallots, leeks, bunching onions, and more. Bulbs, tubers, potatoes, sweet potatoes, peanuts, and perennial flowers and plants also germinate better during the waning moon.

The waning moon is said to stop flowers from growing on the above ground plants and annuals.

Thursday, October 12, 2023

Hello! It is a cool Thursday morning. There are lots of orders to pull and we are leaving at 10:30am to take our pastor to Chama Gaucha Brazilian Steakhouse for Pastor Appreciation since October is Pastor Appreciation month.

We drove an hour to get to the restaurant and ate delicious food. Pastor Jerry had a great time and then we stopped by the car lot where Matt's car was being fixed. They had not fixed the steering like they said they would so Matt had a problem with it last week but now they have fixed it. We picked up the car and went home.

Angelica had to deal with a customer who was not at all nice to her because we no longer have photos on our seed packages. He insisted that we make paper catalogs. Well, Sir, you do not own this company and you do not pay $5000 in ink cartridges for our $16,000 printer to make those envelopes each month like we were doing. We are trying to save some money. Many of the big seed companies do not have photos on their packages so we don't need them either when you can look on our website and see everything. We don't do paper catalogs because we run out of a lot of things before the catalog would even be printed. We looked into it years ago and it is expensive. This time of year is a gardening slow time so we don't have extra money for frivolities or for extra workers which is why we are having to do so many jobs seven days a week.

Planting By The Moon

Here is a quarter or crescent moon in the clouds.

Now we begin to get to the smaller details. Let's talk the first quarter moon when you look up at night and see that the moon goes from nothing to a crescent to what looks like a half moon. When that happens, it is the time to plant all of the annual plants that grow above ground fruit with seeds outside of the fruit. This includes plants like spinach, asparagus, celery, cabbage, and similar plants.

Once the first quarter moon starts to go towards being a full moon, it is time plant the vegetables and fruits that have seeds inside, like tomatoes, peppers, squash, beans, and peas. By the time the moon is full, moonlight and moisture from the ground are at maximum capacity.

Friday, October 13, 2023

Well, here it is, Friday the 13th. I hear there could be a lot of terrorism going on in the United States today among Jewish communities, especially in New York City. It is scary. Of course, there is still a war going on in Israel and it is horrible. Israel has to defend herself. May our God of peace put an end to it quickly.

Ethel at the vet's with David's knee. She did a great job like she always does.

Kitty is in her carrier at the vet's office here. She hissed away the entire visit. She hates strangers and she hates going to the vet.

This morning, we have to take Ethel (age13) and Kitty (age 14) for their yearly rabies shots and exams. Ethel has lost weight because she won't eat much anymore. She will eat the canned Hill Science Diet Sensitive Stomach food but that is expensive. She won't eat anything else now.

We got the animals to the vet smoothly. Once inside, Kitty started hissing at the technician. He took Kitty back. We are not allowed into the exam room with this vet which is something I do not like. Not sure why since we always got to go in the exam room at the vet's in San Antonio. Anyway, they could not even trim Kitty's nails because they were afraid of her. At least they did her shot. Ethel did great as always.

We got them home and have been busy. When I got home, I started laundry and cleaned out the coffee pot with vinegar. I also made two loaves of sugar free banana bread because we had four very brown bananas. It came out good.

This is one of our yellow watermelons that we enjoyed this week from our garden.

I made egg salad for lunch and then came to work, pulling and filling seed orders. It is so hot and humid outside but freezing in the buildings. It is 4pm and 88° Fahrenheit right now. It is almost time to close up shop.

David just got an email from one of our customers stating he has not received his package. He ordered our seeds on Amazon, four packs of yellow watermelon seeds. He claims his mailbox is not big enough for one cantaloupe, let alone 100 large watermelons. What? The guy thinks he bought 100 large watermelons, not four packs of watermelon seeds. This happens quite a bit. David gets emails like this all the time. How can they misread the listing? I mean, our company is David's Garden Seeds®, not David's Garden Watermelons.

See what you think. Here is how the listing appears:

Fruit Watermelon Mountain Sweet Yellow FBA-2398 (Yellow) 25 Non-GMO, Heirloom Seeds

About this item:

Harvest in about 95 days
Seeds are Non-GMO, easy to grow and hand packed by David's Garden Seeds in the United States
Possesses a very high sugar content
Beautiful yellow skin make this a favorite at any market
Germination rate about 80% or better

So this is the listing. Do you think it is for 25 full grown watermelons or 25 watermelon seeds in a 6x3 inch envelope? I can assure you it is for 25 seeds. How could anyone buy 25 full grown watermelons and have them shipped across the country for $8.95?

I just don't get it...

Planting By The Moon

The moon is out at sunrise on 9/15/2020.

After the full moon, as the moon gets smaller also known as the waning phase, moisture and moonlight get less and less with each passing night. They say that the growing energy is now under the ground which means it is a good time to plant everything below the ground as mentioned above. Roots, bulbs, perennials, and biennials should be planted now. It is also time to divide perennials, plant trees and bushes, and prune plants.

Once the fourth quarter moon hits until the moon is dark again, it is time to let your garden rest. Do not plant now while gravitational pull from the moon is least. Now is the time to weed, mulch, fertilize, and harvest anything that needs to be picked. Fruits and vegetables that are picked close to the new moon phase will store longer. Isn't that so interesting?

Saturday, October 14, 2023

Good Saturday morning! David and I left the farm at 7am to go grocery shopping. We got back and David put things away while I ran out and fed the farm animals. Some Saturdays, customers are here at 8am and we don't open until 10am. We close at 2pm and some Saturdays, they don't show up until 3pm.

I have plenty of seed orders to fill to keep me busy.

The air is lovely, dry, cool so nice. But the sky is filled with clouds so we may not get to see the eclipse of the sun at all.

We are having a plant sale today. Snake plants $9.95 or two for $15. These are great indoor plants. They make good gifts. Snake plants are also known as Mother-In-Law's Tongue.

Today only, buy two bags of garlic for $18. Regularly $9.95 each so two cost $19.90.

So we were supposed to have a solar eclipse this morning but we had thick, grey cloud cover. The sun peeped out, whole, just before 2pm. Now we have blue skies but we missed the entire eclipse and just had a few sprinkles. I feel so ripped off.

We missed the eclipse due to heavy cloud cover. The sun came out to play just before 2pm. That figures...LOL!

This evening, we made taco bowls for the movie. We watched Star Trek The Voyage Home, my favorite of the series. It got pretty chilly this evening.

Planting By The Moon

The moon is hiding behind some clouds.

Today is the New Moon. As mentioned above, This means it helps the seeds to germinate or come up. The new moon phase is when you should directly sow the seeds into the ground or container for above ground (not roots) fruits and vegetables so get out and plant today.

Let's talk a bit about the flow of sap. When the moon is waxing or getting bigger to the eye, sap flow is drawn up, making it a good time for planting melons, using liquid fertilizer, pruning, and grafting plants. The increased flow of sap upwards means new plant growth is much quicker.

When the moon wanes or gets smaller to the eye, the flow of sap is moved downward on the plants and trees, giving energy to roots as well as plants that live longer than two years, like asparagus. Asparagus can last up to 20 years if you take care of it properly. Here is an article on how to grow asparagus. This is the time to apply solid fertilizer to plants and to prune plants that are dormant.

Sunday, October 15, 2023

Sunday sunrise was beautiful.

Good morning. It is now 8am and chilly at 60°. I have not yet been out to feed the animals although I was out an hour ago with the dogs. I know it is going to be cold...but I need to go.

I have too many things to do. I guess I should get organized and make a list. I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday.

Our back acre has greened up after all of the rain. It looks good.

Pamela is coming out of the well house. She and David were in there after church.

We went to church, came back, made a simple lunch of some thin steaks and grilling beans, along with raw carrots and celery. It was very good.

Planting By The Moon

This is a nice afternoon shot of the moon.

Let's talk about hydroponics and the moon's gravity. I researched this topic and could find nothing about planting by the moon affecting hydroponic growing of plants.

David said that since gardening by the moonlight is based on lunar gravity, he does not think that it has an effect on the plants grown in water versus those grown in soil.

When I Googled it, the only thing that kept coming up was growing food in space, on the moon, and on Mars.

Return from Planting By The Moon to Year Five On The Farm

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