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There's plenty of gardening left before fall arrives

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Five months from today is Christmas Day! Are you making plans?

But before The Big Day arrives, there’s still gardening to be done  even if each week now the list of veggies you can safely plant for harvest this fall grows shorter as autumn approaches. Check it out and see if there are those you’re interested in having in your fall garden.

Here’s the information for this week according to the phases of the moon and signs of the zodiac. And it’s hard to believe we’d be talking about wet ground at this time in the summer when back in the spring a “mild drought” was predicted, but it’s so. Be sure you don’t plant if your ground is too wet – it doesn’t matter if it’s spring, summer or fall!

The moon is in the light phase until 9:37 THIS EVENING when the full moon appears, and this one’s called a “Full Buck Moon.”

All day, if you’re so inclined, you may plant only those veggies that produce above the ground, with an eye on the list below, and then beginning Monday and until the next new moon at 11:08 p.m. Aug 9, only those that produce below the ground.

According to the signs, today finds us in the midst of a series of so-so signs that continues through Wednesday with the moon change occurring today. Remember these signs aren’t particularly fertile but they aren’t destructive either – just so so.

Specifically, today and Monday are under Capricorn (the knees) with the period concluding Tuesday and Wednesday when the sign moves to Aquarius (the legs).

Outstanding planting for below-ground producers returns Thursday, Friday and Saturday, with the sign in Pisces (the feet), one of the four most fruitful signs. Have a look at the list below and see what you can plant.

Turing the page into August, all planting should cease next Sunday and Monday, Aug. 1-2, when the sign moves to Aries (the head), one of the killing signs. Reserve these days for any gardening activities but planting.

Then outstanding planting is back on the map for Aug. 3-4 with the sign in Taurus (the neck), one of the four most fruitful signs and the moon in the dark phase.

Making changes

If you have changes to make like weaning small animals or children, stopping smoking, starting a diet, beginning an exercise program, scheduling elective surgery – in short anything that requires a change – there’s a five-day stretch beginning Monday and continuing through Saturday.

The moon will be in the dark phase and the signs are going out of the body past anything that “functions.” In order that’s the knees, legs and feet.

Fall gardens

Remember that statistically speaking the date given with each listing of veggies is the last safe one to plant them and expect them to have a reasonable chance of germinating, maturing and reaching your table before frost arrives in the fall. This from the Extension service’s “Home Vegetable Gardening in Kentucky.”

And the list is getting shorter every week.

TODAY: Snap beans

Saturday: Broccoli plants, collards, kale, kohlrabi, Bibb lettuce plants, parsley, snow peas, summer squash, turnips

Aug.  15: Leaf lettuce

Sept. 1:  Spinach

Sept.  15: Radishes

Any favorites missing from this list? If so, it’s too late in the season, statistically speaking, to plant them unprotected.

If you have any questions or comments, call me here at Your Hometown Newspaper, 227-4556, e-mail me at pcase@state-journal.com, tweet @plantingbysigns OR if you go to my new website, plantingbythesigns.net you’ll go right over to my new blog and we can chat there or you can post your questions. And notice that’s “plantingbysigns” to tweet since there weren’t enough letters available to get “the” in, and “plantingbythesigns” for the website/blog.