Waning Gibbous

We are gearing up around here in preparation of the coming gardening season. Ron has the day off tomorrow, and we will be pouring over the seeds from last year and deciding what is going where and what flourished last year and what fell flat.

I decided that I would like to pay attention to the phases of the moon this year and see if that has any bearing whatsoever on the health of the garden.

So this will be a little lesson in the phases of the moon. Somehow I never learned this in high school, not because they didn't teach it, but I may have been thinking about more important things that day, like did Joey Sefchick like me, or what I was doing Friday night after the football game, or if I remembered to put my tennis shoes back in my gym locker or not! So here it is for all of you that may have had better things on your mind during Earth Science (is that where I would have learned this?)

The lunar month is about 29 days (ok dah! we all know that). The lunar month begins with a New Moon (hardly visable to the naked eye) and proceeds into it 1st quarter waxing. At the end of the 1st quarter,the moon will be shaped like a capital D and be about 50% visible. It will continue waxing and be called the Waxing Gibbous during the 2nd quarter. The Full Moon occurs at the end of the 2nd quarter. During the 3rd quarter the moon is called the Waning Gibbous (as of this writing, this is the stage of the moon we are currently in). By the end of the 3rd quarter we arrive at the 50% mark again, only this time it will be a backwards capital D and starts the 4th quarter, waning to the New Moon again.

2 Quick definitions:

New Moon = when the moon is between the earth and sun, thereby being unable to reflect much sunlight and is also considered a "dark moon." (next New Moon = Jan 26th)

Full Moon = when the earth is between the sun and moon, thereby the moon is able to reflect much of the sunlight and these are the ones we can see so clearly, (didn't I get my first kiss under a full moon from Joey Sefchick after a football game?.............digression, sorry, next Full Moon = Feb 9th)

Ok, that was probably boring and stuff you already knew. For the 50% of you reading this who paid attention in Earth Science, you are saying,"Get on to how this applies to gardening!"

What I have read in a nutshell is this:

During the 1st Quarter, plant any leafy crops, lettuce, cabbage, spinach, ferns, etc...

During the 2nd Quarter, plant things that have seeds inside, tomatoes, beans, eggplant, etc...

During the 3rd Quarter, plant things that grow under ground or are periennal, potatoes, garlic, Black eyed Susans etc...

During the 4th Quarter, plant nothing, instead do your weeding, pruning, and kill pests. (Think before you mow your lawn in this quarter about what you want to accomplish with it)

Some people say this is silly, but the way I am looking at it is this, if the moon has the ability to affect the tides, that is pretty powerful and I have nothing to lose by simply trying this. I have looked and there is nothing "proven" about plant yields and health, but much research claims they have gotten better results following these guidelines.

If anyone plants by the moon phases already, I would be interested in your results please post a comment.

P.S. There is a Moon Phase Gadget added to the bottom right hand column of this blog and here is web site that you can track the moon for the coming year: http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/MoonPhase.php