Do you ever get confused about what day it is? Welcome to my world!

I was thinking we had a waning Moon in Scorpio today so I decided to plant a little pot of red carnations and some elephant garlic I had rooting on the window sill. Well, it’s not a waning Scorpio Moon, it’s a waning Sagittarius Moon. Duh! Which leads to an important question about lunar gardening:

Which is more important ~ the phase of the Moon or the sign?

That’s quite a debate, but I think most would agree that it’s the phase. At least I planted in the waning phase which is good for bulbs and root plants like garlic. We’ll see how my little Sadge plantings fare. It’s always good to test the system, right?

Anyway, on to elephant garlic!

I asked about elephant garlic at the local nurseries last year and no one had any. Since I’ve rooted some things I’ve bought at the grocery store in the past, I thought I’d give the elephant garlic a go. I brought it home, left it out on my counter top and sort of forgot about it. After a month, I stuck it in the butter compartment of the refrigerator and forgot about it again.

Normally, we’d plant garlic in the autumn, but that didn’t happen last year because…well…life happens and planting garlic didn’t. A couple of weeks ago, I decided to see if the garlic would root. I divided the gloves, put each in a little shot glass and set them on the kitchen window sill. You can see how nicely they rooted in the top photo.

Maybe spending time in the butter compartment fooled them into thinking they’d been through a winter. They rooted very quickly in just a tiny bit of water. Nice sprouts, too!

Today they got to move outdoors. I have three planted in a sunny spot off my back porch and two more have moved in with a container grown red and white rose. I think it’s a Scentimental florabunda. I had to look it up online. I’m not a rose expert by a long shot. Louise Riotte, my gardening guru, has written a book about companion planting called Roses Love Garlic. So the little garlics are now living the high life.

Garlic and onions are associated with Mars, the classical ruler of the zodiac sign Scorpio. Anything with a spicey little kick to it can be associated with Mars, including all the peppers we use in cooking. Even the ornamental peppers we see during the holidays are Marsy.

Roses, naturally, belong to Venus. Roses and garlic. Venus and Mars. Not a bad memory to make for a little après Valentine planting. And since Sagittarius loves a practical joke, I’ll enjoy being confused about what day it is and just laugh it off.