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.
- Saturday-Sunday: Moon in the sign of Scorpio - Plant seasonal color
- Before purchasing Daffodil bulbs, note the difference in flower production. They are graded in price. Daffodils are graded by the number of flowers they produce. All the other bulbs are classified by size, usually in centimeters. A Jumbo Daffodil bulb will make three to four flowers per bulb, while a #1 yields two to three flowers, and a #3 produces, usually one.
Later in the Week
- Monday and Tuesday: Moon in the sign of Sagittarius - Plant onions
- Red, white, and yellow onion sets are now available for planting. YouTube has several 'How to Videos' with all the planting information.
Other Things To-do
- It's a good time to divide and replant perennials or plant new plants, such as Penstemon, Shasta daisy, Coreopsis, etc. Perennials divided and replanted in the fall will bloom in the spring, but those divided or planted in the spring will not bloom until the following year.
- The spent Hydrangeas flowers are pruned off as close to the ground as possible. The rest of the foliage is then trimmed lightly to shape the plant. With older varieties, you don't want to prune the plant(s) severely. Heavy pruning will remove the flowering wood so that you will get little to no flowers next year. However, the Endless Summer series or similar variety blooms on the new and old wood. So, you avoid this problem.
- Now is the time to prepare your previous year's poinsettia for bloom this year. For the next six weeks, the plants are covered at dinnertime and removed at breakfast. A cardboard box or tomato cage covered with a black plastic trash bag works well. The indirect light from the street, flood, and incandescent light sources disrupt things, hence the need to cover the plant(s).