March 28-April 3, 2011
Can trouble live with April days,
Or sadness with the summer moons?
-Tennyson

Lunar phase and lore
The Pussy Willow Moon, covering all the pussy willow catkins with pollen and then allowing them to fall to earth, becomes the new Morel Mushroom Moon on April 3 at 9:32 a.m.

Morel mushrooms are clear signs of middle spring, but if you have no secret morel hunting grounds, the full bloom of dandelions can trace the center of middle spring just as well. And when morels are springing up and dandelions reach their peak, then all the flowering fruit trees are blossoming, too.
The new moon is always overhead in the middle of the day, so plan your fishing expeditions for mid-morning, especially as the barometer drops before the arrival of the cool fronts due around April 2 and 6.

Leaving Aquarius for Pisces next Wednesday, the moon enters Aries that Saturday and Taurus on Monday. Planting of all types of flowers and vegetables is recommended next week, especially in Pisces and Taurus.

Walk out under the night sky before you go to bed. Find the Big Dipper moving in above you. Below it lies the constellation Leo, with the brightest star overhead, Regulus. To the east, Arcturus leads the Corona Borealis from the horizon. In the far west, Orion is setting, as the Pleiades slide into the northwest.

Before sunrise, Hercules has moved to near the center of the sky. The summer triangle, which includes bright Vega, Altair and Deneb, are just a little behind Hercules to his east.

The Milky Way passes through the triangle, separating it from autumn’s Pegasus rising on the eastern horizon. The Corona Borealis has shifted into the western half of the heavens, and the pointers of the Big Dipper point almost exactly east-west.

Venus moves retrograde into Aquarius, keeping its position as the morning star. Mars and Jupiter in Pisces follow Venus before the sun comes up, spending almost all of the day crossing the sky. Saturn in Virgo sets in the west as Venus rises in the east.

Weather patterns

Fish, game, livestock and people tend to feed more and are more active as the barometer is falling one to three days before the weather systems that arrive near the following dates, dates on which cold fronts normally cross the Mississippi River: April 2, 6, 11, 16, 21, 24 and 28.

The April 2 high-pressure system initiates an 11-day period of unsettled weather that brings an increased chance of tornadoes in the South and Midwest and spring storms to the North. Rain typically precedes this front, and flurries or even major accumulation of snow follow it, making April 3-5 some of the wettest and most turbulent days of the month’s first half.
Although highs above 60 degrees become common in most of the nation during this period, frost continues to strike tender vegetables about one night in four north of the Border States.

Daybook

March 28: Gall mites start working in the ash trees; pine weevils and moths can be moving in the evergreens. Bluegrass billbugs generally become active at this time, laying eggs when temperatures warm at the end of March.
March 29: Monarch butterflies have reached the Deep South, moving across Texas, then to Louisiana and Georgia. Some have flown north to Oklahoma and Arkansas, laying eggs all along the way, eggs that produce the adults of late summer in the lower Midwest.

March 30: The first bluebells, bloodroot, twinleaf and spring beauties are opening. The first May apples and toad trilliums have pushed out of the ground up. Violet cress and Dutchman’s britches are in full bloom. Almost all the pussy willow catkins have fallen. The first buckeye leafs out.

March 31: The lower branches of honeysuckles are greening, making the undergrowth look like middle spring. New ginger leaves have emerged on the forest floor.

April l: Early sweet corn planting time is announced by Vega, the center star of August, rising after 9 p.m. At the same hour, winter’s Orion sets in the west. Middle spring and barn swallows arrive as 10 percent of all oats are in the ground.

April 2: Farmers are preparing ground for late April tomato planting, just as  cabbage moths are laying eggs on the cabbage, kale, collards and Brussels sprouts. Potato planting is under way. Forsythia blooms. New calves are in the fields.

April 3: Bluegills and rock bass look for worms. Half the tobacco beds have usually been sown. Flower producers have finished preparing bedding plants for Mother’s Day and Memorial Day. Three more weeks of relatively mosquito-free gardening remain.

April frost watch

Although your farm or garden is virtually certain to have one or more frosts next month, early plantings will be able to take advantage of spring rains, and every few years, frost stays away from the end of March through the end of October.

Between April 1 and June 1, close to 10 frosts occur in this region. Chances for a light frost to strike after the dates listed below are:
April l: 98 percent
April 5: 90 percent
April 10: 75 percent
April 15: 65 percent
April 20: 55 percent
April 25: 40 percent
April 30: 30 percent