Planting beets

Planted 46 Bull’s Blood Beets (R2B1)

And 38 Chioggia Guardsmark (R2B2) before we ran out of warm soil (had 2-5 gallon buckets in the house).

We’re planting with the lunar cycle. Since we’re in the full moon phase, I’m starting my winter garden with root vegetables.

This picture is of my Bull’s Blood beets. The seeds were pelleted, so you can somewhat see them, if you look closely (hot pink).

Ordinarily I don’t pay much attention to spacing guidelines. I like a lush, full garden where every square inch is producing. But with root crops, they need space to grow. I still didn’t plant rows 12-18” apart, but I did do about 4” centers.

To companion plant, I’m going to eventually add some lettuce or broccoli to this bed.

The farmer’s almanac has been around for 200+ years and it swears by planting according to the lunar cycle. So I’m going to try it. I’m sure my grandparents and greats followed it.

According to how I understand what I have researched, and those of you who’ve been using this method, please correct me if I’m wrong:

Basically there’s 3 planting stages and one maintenance stage:

1) New moon is when you plant leafy annuals and above ground crops with external seeds (annual vegs, annual herbs, annual flowers).

2) Second quarter moon (some calendars call it the first quarter) is when you plant above ground annuals with internal seeds (annual fruit).

3) Full moon is when you plant root vegetables, bulbs and perennials (vegs, fruits, herbs, flowers).

4) Fourth quarter moon (last quarter) there is no planting. Focus on improving soil, cleaning the garden. Weed, mulch, fertilize, harvest, mow, water. I’ll also work on tool maintenance, organizing/planning, etc.

I’m an organized, schedule oriented kind of girl. Not that I ever hit my mark, but having a plan and/or goal settles me. So I’m going to try this for this year and see how it goes. I’m not sure how this relates to seed starting indoors, but just to not be all over the place, I’m going to stick to this schedule just to be consistent.