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Planting by the Signs: When's a good time to rock your road?

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By Philip Case/State Journal Columnist
March 7, 2010

 

If my calls this week have been any indication, a lot of you out there in Readerland are in need of rock on your driveway or farm road. So here’s a “heads-up” to our local suppliers: Build up your stockpiles!

Callers have asked when’s the best time to put down rock or gravel so it won’t sink. That time is when the moon is in the light phase and that’s not going to happen until 5:01 p.m. Monday, March 15. Thus all this week the moon is in the dark phase and that’s just not the best time to put down any sort of aggregate you don’t want to sink slowly.

As I’ve said countless times before, please don’t ask me to explain “why” it works this way because I can’t. All I know is this: If you can avoid putting down rock or gravel when the moon’s in the dark phase, then please do so and wait until the light moon is in force.

My non-scientific, not-research-based  (except on our own farm) opinion on this is that it has to do with the moon’s gravitational pull which affects other things besides just the tides – like rocks on a road!

But here’s the simple answer: Put down gravel or rock from March 16-28 this month. I need some on a road, but I’m waiting another week.

Coming next week

Before I share with you what’s up for this week according to the phases of the moon and signs of the zodiac – given you already know the moon’s in the dark phase – let me just mention my plan for next week.

It’s my intention to write about Spring gardening and those veggies that enjoy cool air and soil temperatures – and there are plenty of them that not only enjoy but also thrive under cool conditions. When the hot weather of summer comes (may it be ever so soon!) they just pack it in, quit producing and generally pout until the cool weather of fall comes.

So, next week: Spring Gardens!

Moon is dark

The moon is in the dark phase all week so you should be proceeding with activities that are dark-moon related. If you were planting – and it’s nowhere near dry enough to consider such a thing in your vegetable garden  – you would be planting those veggies that will produce beneath the ground.

And we’ll talk more about that next week.

While you can’t pour rock, the week ahead is a great one for sowing grass seed with the moon in the dark phase – surely we’ve established that fact by now. Fall is the best time to plant grass seed but the next best time is in the late winter and early spring – and that’s exactly where we are right now.

I’ve had several calls this week, too, about planting grass seed. You just don’t want to wait too much later into the spring for really big seedings but if you need, as they say, “to get up out of the mud,” then this would be a good time.

Getting a soil sample first is always a good idea, but as Kim Cowherd says in her article elsewhere in today’s Spectrum, at this time of year the labs at the University of Kentucky get backed up and it may take up to six weeks for you to get a soil analysis back – and that’s if you take the sample in tomorrow!

Six weeks puts us past the middle of April and that’s getting late for grass seeding. That soil sample, however, will be most beneficial for your garden this summer and renovating your lawn in the fall.

Please read Kim’s article on page C4 for more information on this important part of gardening.

Signs this week

This week is ruled by so-so signs, those that are neither outstandingly productive nor destructive – just so-so. Sagittarius (the thighs) is in force today through Tuesday followed by Capricorn  (the knees) ruling Wednesday through Friday. The week concludes with Aquarius (the legs) in force Saturday and next Sunday.

While the signs aren’t outstandingly productive, the good thing about this week is there are no killing signs. So if you have grass seed to plant, have at it.

If you have changes to make, this is one outstanding week for stopping bad habits, starting good ones, scheduling elective surgery, weaning small animals or children – anything that requires a change. The moon is dark (as surely you know by now!) and the signs are going out of the body past anything that functions, i.e. thighs, knees, legs – by the time we get to Pisces (the feet) the moon is changing to the light phase.

If you’re making a change, just be underway before 5:01 next Sunday afternoon, March 14, when the moon moves to the light phase.

There you have what’s shakin’ this week. I’ll see you next week for Spring Gardens!

If you have questions don’t hesitate to call me here at Your Hometown Newspaper, 227-4556 or e-mail me at pcase@state-journal.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 




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