Mom told me that my grandma believed that it was important to plant potatoes by the moon. I could never remember, though, whether you were supposed to plant at the new moon or the full moon. Story goes that planting at the right time results in plenty of potatoes; planting two weeks later gives you lots of green leaves.
Last year we didn't get started on the garden until late. It was cold and wet. By the time the neighbor tilled for us and we received our order from Jungs, it was mid-June. I got those potato eyes in the garden as quickly as possible. The yield was miserable: three potatoes per hill.
Melody says to plant potatoes on Good Friday. That would be just after the full moon. (Moon phases determine the date for Easter.) Between Melody's advice and the beckoning of the sunny warmth of outdoors, I spent Thursday afternoon tilling the garden. Today two short rows of potatoes were started. By October I should have round-two of our experiment done.
It is amazing to me that I got ANYthing done around here today, with three church services, a visit to the pedorthist, and a late wake-up because of last night's prayer vigil. Happily, planting wasn't that hard in the light, fluffy, airy, crumbly, lovely soil that resulted from all that
PS: If you haven't heard/seen the footage of the congressman who's worried that Guam may capsize (yes, you heard me ... capsize) if a US military base is built there, you can find the you-tube snip on Melody's blog.
How 3 services on Good Friday?
ReplyDeleteMom, Wisconsin has a very strong tradition of afternoon services for Good Friday. I don't remember hearing about that in Illinois. However, we don't have just the afternoon service. Fitting in everybody to the one afternoon service would be pretty tight. There's also the problem that some people work and can't make the afternoon service (especially with society changing in the last two decades so that the stores no longer close from 12-3:00). Because of those things, Peace has long had the Good Friday service at 1:00 and 7:00. Kids sang at the afternoon service; adult choir at the evening service.
ReplyDeleteThis is the third or fourth year we have also had Tenebrae. That's at 9:00 in the morning.
I'm following your experiment with great interest. Dh and I put a fair amount of stock in these old maxims. Too many of them simply work too well to be simple superstitions.
ReplyDeleteDid you know that once the peonies bloom, the nights will no longer be cold enough for winter bedding? I discovered that by accident, but it's held for close to ten years now in two different states! So, I pack up my down comforter when I cut peonies to bring into the house.
Potato vines started to die back in mid- to late-July. First week of August the vines are practically non-existent. A week ago, Gary dug one hill. The one hill had about a gallon of beautiful Yukon Gold potatoes, nice and big, and a whole lot more of them than last year!
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