Catch of the Day

It seems that every week or so our TV weatherman tells us that there is "chance" for rain. Most of the time that chance passes us by. After only an inch-and-a-half total for the first three months of this year, mother nature brought us a bountiful inch-and-a-half today. We sat on our deck and watched a fabulous light show with lots of thunder and a drenching rain. Our rain barrels caught about seventy gallons of pure hill country gold--enough to last for a while. Earlier in the day, in anticipation of the wet stuff, I finished planting corn and Mitla black bean seeds as well as a few pintos and haricot verts. Which leads me to the topic of when to plant. I inherited my appreciation of gardening from my grandfather who planted his seeds according to phases of the moon. Our full moon for March occurred on the twenty-seventh of the month--the worm moon. It was an uncommonly cold, windy, drab day and after planting about half of my corn and bean seeds, I quit. So which batch will grow up to be the hardiest plants--seeds planted on the day of the full moon or put in the ground just prior to a good rain? We'll see.