Sept. 2-8, 2019

A vast similitude interlocks all,

All spheres, grown, ungrown, small, large, suns,

moons, planets.

-Walt Whitman

The Autumn Apple Picking Moon, new on August 30, waxes throughout the week, entering its second quarter at 10:10 p.m. on Sept. 5 and becoming full as it reaches apogee, its position farthest from Earth, on Sept. 13 at 11:23 p.m.

This moon passes overhead in the afternoon and early evening. Lunar position late in the day, and the approach of the cold front due around Sept. 8, should improve conditions for angling.

Weather trends

The long period during which there is at least a 10 percent chance of highs below 70 degrees begins on Sept. 4. Warmer conditions typically return on Sept. 5-6, but the second high-pressure system of the month, which arrives between Sept. 5-11, pushes lows into the 30s one year in 20.

Sept. 6 is the first day of the season on which there is about a 5 percent chance of light frost on the gardens of the lower Midwest. Chances increase at the rate of about 1 percent per day through Sept. 15. Between then and Sept. 20, chances grow at the rate of 2 percent per day. Between Sept. 20-30, they grow at the rate of 5 percent per day.

The Allergy Index estimated pollen count, on a scale of 0-700 grains per cubic meter, is as follows: Sept. 1, 300 grains; Sept. 5, 240; Sept. 10, 160; Sept. 15, 60; Sept. 20, 10; and Sept. 30, 10.

The estimated mold count, on a scale of 0-7,000 grains, is: Sept. 1, 5,500 grains; Sept. 5, 4,800; Sept. 10, 4,300; Sept. 15, 2,600; Sept. 20, 3,600; Sept. 25, 1,500; and Sept. 30, 1,300.

The natural calendar

Sept. 2: Growers harvest the grapes throughout the region. Some soybean fields are deep gold, and the bean leaves are beginning to shed.

Sept. 3: Fence row vegetation often turns green again as next spring's avens, violets, sweet cicely, mint, and sweet rocket grow back.

Sept. 4: Leaves gather in the backwaters and on sidewalks and paths. Bright patches of scarlet sumac and Virginia creeper mark the fence rows. Streaks of gold have appeared on the silver olives. Some ash, black walnuts, and cottonwoods are almost bare.

Sept. 5: The violet September crocus have opened in the garden, now that the pale resurrection lilies have died back.

Sept. 6: False boneset begins to lose its brightness along the freeways. Ironweed is now deteriorating quickly, wingstem in its last week. Fawns born in the spring are now weaned and have usually lost their spots.

Sept. 7: Bees are awkward and stiff in the cool mornings. Sometimes on sunny days, woolly bear caterpillars wander the warm blacktop back roads in search of winter habitat.

Sept. 8: Great flocks of Canada geese sometimes gather to feed in pastures. The last young grackles and hummingbirds leave their nests. The Piscid Meteors fly tonight.

Field and garden

Peonies and other perennials can be fertilized this month to encourage improved flowering next spring and summer. This is also an excellent time to divide and transplant day lily and iris collections.

Purchase a little rye to plant in the garden now; let it sprout and grow and spade it under in March or April. If you plant your spinach in the fall, it will overwinter and provide an early-spring crop.

Sept. 10 is the Muslim feast of Ashura. This date commemorates the martyrdom of Muhammad’s grandson, Hussein. It also celebrates Noah’s survival from the Great Flood. Consider exploring this ethnic market for your kids and lambs.

And the Moon Festival or Chuseok takes place on Sept. 13-15. Often observed by Korean-Americans and others of Asian descent, this feast can also provide a market for your lambs and kids.

Leafturn notebook

The leaves began to turn in July, mostly buckeyes in the woods, but that was a false start. Then in August, the foliage of black walnuts started falling, the walnuts coming down beside them. The real days of seasonal reckoning occur in the third week of the month.

Between Sept. 13-20, the first major acceleration in the coloring of trees take place. Yellows and tans, born in summer's drier days, spread like the cold nights creeping south from Canada.

The summer green of a few sycamores, locusts, elms, box elders, maples, poplars, cottonwoods, and redbuds is breaking down. At the same time, goldenrod passes full bloom, the roadside grasses are dry, the corn is mostly brown, and the soybeans and milkweed are almost all turned. The land is forgetting July.

Patches of deep scarlet in the sumac and Virginia creeper highlight the changes in the tree line. The rare August Judas maple multiplies. There are streaks of bright amber on the lindens and ginkgoes, tulip trees, locusts, mulberries, chinquapin oaks, and Osage orange.

In the last days of September, the major autumn leafturn always begins, and the smell of fallen leaves starts to fill the afternoons. In the earliest years, dogwoods flush pale pink and the deepening of hickory and maples intensifies. A few sweet gum, locust, and poplars show their finest gold.

By the first day of October, the lower trees and wildflowers in the woods have thinned out, nettles and touch-me-nots as bare as scrub buckeyes and box elders. Some cottonwoods are just about gone. Catalpas are shedding, wild cherry and slippery elm fading, and wild grape leaves yellowing and browning along the fence rows.