Sept. 3-9, 2012

Out of the west the wind comes over,

over the yellow goldenrod,

over the drying rattle-box pod,

comes heady with corn and apple smell now.

-August Derleth

Waning throughout the period, the Hickory Horned Devil Moon enters its final quarter at 8:15 a.m. Sept. 8. Rising in the night and setting in the middle of the day, this moon moves overhead near dawn.

Since most wild creatures feed more heavily with the moon above them, angling is favored in the morning next week, especially as the Sept. 8 cool front approaches. Lunar position in Cancer on Sept. 9-11 will favor late seeding of radishes and greens, while the waning moon itself encourages root growth on newly planted shrubs and trees.

Go outside several hours after sunset to find Perseus rising out of the northeast, the Great Square filling the eastern sky, Cygnus the Swan overhead, Hercules and the Corona Borealis in the west and the Big Dipper low in the northwest. Taurus and the Pleiades are up by midnight, and they stay in the dark sky until middle spring, when their disappearance coincides with the blooming of daffodils.

Early fall arrives next week. Temperatures, which usually cool slightly at the pivot time of Aug. 10, decline more noticeably. Chances for highs in the 90s hold at less than 10 percent each day next week, the first time that has happened since the last days of May.

Cold 60s occur another 10 percent of the time (with the slight possibility of 50s for the first time since June 4), and 70s and 80s share the remaining 80 percent. The rainiest days are historically Sept. 9 and the 12, each having a 40 percent chance of showers. The other days of the period carry about half those odds.

Frost is rare at this stage of the month, but chances for a light freeze increase on Sept. 13-14 as the third high-pressure system of the month comes across the country.

Zeitgebers (signs of the time of year) include full bloom of the large purple New England asters, the small white and violet asters, the blossoming of Jerusalem artichokes, the blending of the tall goldenrod with the golden soybean fields and the golden cottonwoods.

Farmers are cutting corn for silage, gold finches are feeding in the ripening sunflowers, wingstem and ironweed bloom time comes to an end and robins are flocking for their October journey south.

Sept. 3: Burdock and ragweed are decaying. Joe Pye Weed has lost its color. Boneset is past its prime.

Sept. 4: Seedpods of touch-me-nots shatter in the wind. Japanese knotweed blossoms darken and fall. False white boneset becomes dull and gray. Field thistles go to seed.

Sept. 5: Fertilize cool season pastures – as well as your lawn – as soon as possible to maximize their growth potential. Feed the garden with organic matter that will break down over the winter and contribute to a bountiful crop in 2013.

Sept. 6: When you see farmers planting wheat in Northern fields, know that cotton growers are defoliating their cotton plants throughout the South, a process that increases fiber quality.

Sept. 7: As the winter months approach, the percentage of available sunlight declines throughout the nation, more in the Northern states than in Southern areas. Since sunlight is an effective germicide, be alert for the gradual increase in the possibility of disease in the months ahead.

Lower sunlight levels have also been linked to depression, one aspect of S.A.D. (Seasonal Affective Disorder).

Sept. 8: When squirrels scatter buckeye hulls along the trails and locust pods fall beside them, then the first soybeans will be ready to harvest.

Sept. 9: The sweet potato harvest has begun in North Carolina, the potato harvest in Wisconsin, the peanut and sorghum harvest in South Carolina. Farmers are cutting corn for silage all across the nation’s midsection, cutting spring oats and wheat in Wyoming, cutting spring barley in California, cutting hay in Alaska and bringing in tobacco throughout the Border States and the South.