Gardening by the Moon Weekend To-Do

An idea as old as agriculture, based both folklore and superstition but there are scientific ideas to back it up.

• Lunar Phase: 4th Quarter Begins on Friday, June 12
• Saturday-Monday: Moon in the sign of Capricorn - Plant root crops, harvest, cultivate, and weed.
  • When harvesting strawberries, you should take a portion of the stem with each berry. This helps prevent berry rot.
  • Grass Getter or Grass–B-Gon controls grassy weeds, including Bermuda Grass in ivy, ornamental strawberry, hypericum, and other ground covers.

Later in the Week

• Monday through Friday: Moon in the sign of Aquarius/ Pisces - Plant root crops
  • With warm temperatures, planting is best done in the morning hours or early evenings.

Other Things To-do

• Tomatoes can be had hand-pollinated by flicking each bloom during the warmest part of the day. Holding onto their cages and giving them a good shake or two pollinate larger plants in cages. The pollen is naturally sticky, and this helps it to spread. 
•  When the temperatures are over 85 degrees, the ideal time to fertilize plants would be in the morning before 11:00 am or in the evening after 6:00 pm.
•  And finally, it's not too early to conserve moisture around trees, shrubs, and ground covers by mulching. A one to two-inch layer of mulch will protect the roots of all plants during our warm summer days as well as retard weed growth.