May 30-June 5, 2011
At star shine,
Crimson clover in stretching, wilting rows,
Cut at first bloom to hold all good within.
Quiet in star glow for tomorrow’s turning
To tomorrow’s sun.

-Janet Stevens
Lunar phase and lore

The Clover Moon becomes the new Mulberry Moon on June 1 at 4:03 p.m. and then waxes throughout the period, entering its second quarter at 9:11 p.m. on June 8. Rising in the morning and setting in the evening, this dark moon lies overhead in the middle of the day.

Entering Gemini next Tuesday, Cancer on Friday, Leon on Sunday and Virgo the next Tuesday, the moon will favor all your early summer planting, especially under fertile Cancer on Friday and Saturday. Lunar position favors fishing (but not dieting) at midday, especially as the June 2 and 6 cool fronts approach.
Venus and Mars lie together in Taurus this month, along with the bright eye of Taurus, Aldebaran. To tell Mars and Aldebaran (which also appears red) apart, remember that planets do not twinkle like stars.

This month, Jupiter moves retrograde from Pisces into Aries, offering its light as a second morning star below Venus. Saturn stays in Virgo, hidden from view for most of the night.

The main landmarks of an early summer night are Regulus in the west, Arcturus and the Corona Borealis overhead and Vega in the east. The Milky Way lies along the eastern horizon, together with Cygnus the Swan (the Northern Cross).

Weather patterns

The June 2 front can bring a light freeze along the Canadian border and at higher elevations, but the rest of the country is typically safe by this time in the year (except for a very slight danger of frost on the morning of June 5). After this front weakens, chances for highs in the cool 60s along the 40th Parallel fall to only 15 percent, and 50s are rare.

The low-pressure system that accompanies the June 6 front initiates a four-day period during which there is an increased chance for tornadoes and flash floods.  Even after this front passes to the east, storms strike 40 percent of the years.

Part of the reason for the rise in the risk for severe weather is the increase in the percentage of afternoons in the 80s and 90s almost everywhere in the continental United States. With the heat, however, comes more sunshine than during any other week so far in the year.

Daybook

May 30: Spring pasture now reaches its brightest green of the year, and haying moves toward the Canadian border at the rate of about 100 miles a week. Spring wheat is just about all planted in the North, and the oats crop is in the ground between Denver and New York.

Farmers have seeded almost all the corn in Ohio and Indiana, and most of the soybeans are ordinarily sprouting.

May 31: Winter wheat is headed in the lower Midwest and has turned gold below the Ohio River. Strawberries are usually 10 percent picked, and the first cut of alfalfa is a third complete.

In the Northeast, blueberries are setting fruit. In Southern gardens, squash bugs and Japanese beetles are out in force and blackberries are forming, their flowers long fallen.

June 1: The moon is new today, ideal for seeding the last pasture and the final field crops of the summer. Don’t wait any longer for the soybeans! Put in additional plantings of greens, corn and beans, too.

June 2: Potatoes and commercial tomatoes and pickles have all been set out along the Great Lakes. Mulberry season has begun for both the red and white varieties.

June 3: In Chicago and Wisconsin, locust trees are heavy with flowers, their rich scent on the wind. Purple sweet rockets are full all the way into Minnesota, where the wheat is only six inches to a foot tall, the first corn just sprouted, sugar beets the size of radishes. Lilacs and iris are still in flower near the Canadian border.

June 4: Six to eight leaves have usually emerged on the field corn. Strawberries are about half harvested in Pennsylvania, but that season is just beginning along the Canadian border. Cherry picking is in full swing throughout the central states. Black raspberries start their season in the Border States.
June 5: Armyworms and corn borers are at work when strawberries redden in the garden. Slugs are out in force, bean leaf beetles are eating beans and alfalfa weevil infestations become more common when the first zucchini ripens and elderberries start to bloom.