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: New Moon, Wednesday, October 3
- Saturday-Sunday: Moon in the sign of Leo - Harvest, weed, control pests, and cultivate
- Pumpkins are ready to harvest when the foliage starts to turn yellow so stop watering them at this point and let the plants die. Halloween is still weeks away but you can leave the pumpkins in the patch or move them to a shady location until you are ready to carve them.
Later in the Week
- Wednesday and Thursday: Moon in the sign of Libra - Plant seasonal colo
- Garden Mums are now available for planting in containers and the ground. When it comes to fall color, Mums the word. Also, I remove struggling summer color and replace them with English Primrose, Pansies and Violas which flower throughout the winter
Other Things To-do
- September is a good month to go through the canopy of citrus, removing any and all dead wood. The dieback in citrus is a natural occurrence so pruning it out several times a year is not uncommon.
- Now is the time to seal brick, cement, other masonry surfaces and wood that develop moss during the rainy season. A sealer prevents the moss roots from growing into the material, and this makes the surface easy to clean up with a rag. There are several products available at your local home improvement retailer.
- Fall is an important time of the year to feed turf. It is in the fall, not the spring that grass produces new plants. Between now and Thanksgiving, apply a single application of lawn food.