Let's garden a bit today, shall we?

Geez folks, I know I haven't done a very good job with my moon gardening updates on here, but there honestly isn't much to do beside weed and water until it is harvest time.

We have started to get some berries off of the raspberry plants I planted this year, I have tomatoes coming, lots and lots of little chili peppers...and my squash are all blooming. One of the things about this year, everything is about 3-4 weeks ahead. We had that strange warm spell in March and then it never really got cold again, and things have suffered just as some things have flourished.
Things that had suffered were my blooming lilacs...they budded out too quickly, and when we had a frost roll through, froze all the blooms...there was not a single bush in the area that bloomed. My blazing stars are all about 4 weeks early, as are my mountain lilies. My irises have already bloomed and are done.

Speaking of my vegetables, I will be canning in the next month already...it won't even be August and I will be canning. I dont' think I am ready for that, but it is what it is...and I will have to get my stuff going when it ripens.

Anyway, the point of this post this morning. I like to plant two round of peas. They are my toddlers favorite snacks to grab while out working with me. Last year, as she discovered the joy of helping Mom harvest, she would sit her little hinder down next to the peas and just pull them off the plant and eat them, pod and all while I harvested other things. Well, our first round of peas are up and going to be blooming soon, so I decided it was time to see when I could plant my next round...and low and behold...we are close.

As a re-cap, peas like to be planted in a 2nd quarter Moon phase under the Moon signs of Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces or Libra. Well, we are in the 2nd quarter, and today is a Libra, and tomorrow and Friday are Scorpio...guess what I am going to be doing today later...you got it, planting my second round of peas. =)

Now, in Moon gardening, you can even harvest by the Moon as well. As there are certain days that are more favorable than not. I do that as well, but not as much...when the vegetable is ripe and ready, I am not going to wait another 3 days for the phase to be right...I am going to pick the little thing and get it used or at least stored so it don't go bad. Anyone who cans and preserves their own home grown food knows, you deal with it as it comes. Which is what I will be doing.

As I stated above...there isn't much to do right now, beside weed. There is a separate section in my almanac for weeding...and the optimal times for that coming up are as follows:(all times are in EST)

July 4th (8:26pm) to July 7th (12:29am) - 3rd quarter
July 9th (8:14am) to July 11th (7:30pm) - 3rd quarter/4th quarter
July 14th (8:26am) to July 16th (8:31pm) - 4th quarter

On July 10th at 9:48pm...the Moon goes from 3rd quarter to 4th quarter...just so you know. Have a most wonderful and blessed day! )O(