Henny Penny Farmette

Heirloom tomato seedling planted in soil enriched with chicken manure

Birthdays come around every year, like perennials. Mine was yesterday.

It just might be the most fortuitous birthday I will ever have. Why? Because it fell on the second day of Holy Week, the first night of Passover, and a full moon night (according to Old Timers, the best lunar phase to plant). So . . . I planted a garden.

Pole beans, corn, vining tomatoes, and sweet garden peas supposedly germinate faster during a full moon because of geotropism (gravity’s effect on plants), or so say those who believe in planting by the moon. Old Timers say the beans will race up the poles if you time their planting in alignment with the lunar cycle of a full moon.

All I know is that when the last tomatoes were in, the light of that humongous moon was spilling over inch of the farmette. I plucked a sprig of lavender and lifted it to my noise to inhale its sweet, clear scent. I sank onto my garden swing and kicked off my clod hoppers. It was time to celebrate.

Tags: geotropism, lunar cycle, pole beans, vining tomatoes