Lugnasa Garlic Planting Moon
Senescence is on my mind. No, not in the OMG I’m 65 and I’m senescensing before my very eyes sense, but in the leaves have begun to fall, crops have matured, the angle of the sun has changed dramatically and we’ve lost just over 2 hours of daylight since June 22nd sense.
Even though the temperature changes over the last decade or so point to a lengthening of fall here in Minnesota, it comes nonetheless. Vegetable plants, annuals for the most part, or at least treated as annuals, have a growing season. As a plant nears the end of its growing season, the vegetable gained over the season matures. The potato plumps up and hardens its skin. The garlic gains a strong outer cover and firms up its cloves. The peppers turn red or grow large. Leeks grow fat and white. Then, the plant begins to die.
Some people prefer summer and the heat, the swimming pool and barbecue, driving around with the top down, dining outdoors, going up to the cabin. Others love spring with its joyous burst of vitality after winter cold. As for me, I prefer the fall. Growing darker. Cooler. The garden wound down. A time for turning inward, focusing on the inner and the inside work.
With Mabon, the Fall Equinox, we celebrate the second harvest and with Samhain, Summer’s End, we mark the harvest season’s close. After Samhain comes my favorite period of the year, Holiseason. It begins with Thanksgiving and ends on Epiphany in the new year.
Leading up to it trees change their colors, leaves fall, mums and asters and clematis and monkshod bloom. Bird migrate and the sky takes on that clarity, that blue clarity, a northern sky promising chill nights and warmish days. Great hiking and biking weather.
Tomorrow is Labor Day the unofficial beginning of fall and the official beginning of school. Have a good holiday.
