As long as I’ve been gardening I’ve heard folks say their family held to the tradition of planting on Good Friday.
Seems like the most common thing folks plant on Good Friday is potatoes, but I’ve heard a few folks say they planted green beans. I suppose what you plant depends on how far south you are.
No one in my family ever planted on Good Friday that I know of. For my area it would be a good time to plant potatoes or any of the other spring vegetables that can stand a frost or two, but I’m not sure green beans would make it.
Here’s some comments left by folks over the years about planting on Good Friday.
- Aquilla Yagoda: My husband’s family firmly believe you can only plant peas on Good Friday.
Spring meant yellow bells coming to life and all the budding spring flowers, including wild daisies. - Mary Lou McKillip: Mother planted her beans and potatoes and some other seed on good Friday and always planted her flower seed on rot Saturday that is the sat after good Friday. They will bloom and bloom. We planted potatoes on Rot Saturday and all we had were the highest vines and no potatoes. Everyone marveled at the tall vines and no potatoes. We always watched the signs from then on. We planted in March one year, after the potatoes were up and the biggest snow came and the man who layed our patch by said boy you will have to plant again. A year later I saw him and he said by the way Mary how did the potatoes crop do and I told J.C. Palmer we had the best crop with big fist full sized potatoes. He shook his head and said boy that surprised me.
- Shirl: Always plant your potatoes on Good Friday and never say thank you when someone shares a plant is very common folklore where I’m from. I doubt I will be planting anything on the first day of spring unless I move tons of snow from the garden. With 20.5″ on the ground and minus 0 temps, it’s hard to think gardening. With today’s bright sunshine, the time change and knowing spring is only a few days away will help me through this bad case of cabin fever.
- Ethelene Dyer Jones: Did I read this on Blind Pig–or elsewhere–that someone’s Daddy said his best gardening was done in the cold of winter with his feet propped up near a heater (or a fireplace) in a warm room, studying the Seed Catalog? A lot of truth in that very necessary preparation for spring planting and good harvest later! My Daddy was always ready to plant important garden items and crop by “Good Friday” each year! And we always had “a mess of green beans” by July 4 each year!
- Bradley: These planting tests are interesting; seems there’s always something to learn. My father-in-law used to plant a garden every year that was always so big. Actually it was much bigger than he needed. Someone asked him why in the world he planted so much knowing that it would be much more than he needed. He said that he knew it but the act of growing things gave him such a rush that he couldn’t resist. Maybe it was innate for him. Just seeing something come from a tiny seed and grow into a large plant gives us satisfaction, I suppose. I couldn’t get kudzu to grow.
We once (years ago) were laughing at something a little old lady said down at the seed store. She was concerned and said that she didn’t know what she was going to do because she wasn’t going to be able to plant her beans on Good Friday this year because this year Good Friday was going to come on Saturday LOL. - Dennis M. Morgan: I do not thank people when they give me a plant. I do ask them if they know the custom about giving and receiving plants so they will know I do appreciate what they did. I have heard you should plant your garden on Good Friday. That is what my Aunt Lucy did and my wife’s grandmother did.
If you or your family observe the tradition of planting on Good Friday please leave a comment and tell us about it.
Last night’s video: Trying to Get Garden Chores Done Before the Rain.
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I do not plant or do much of anything on Good Friday. In my religion it is a holy day and I go to church. The churches used to be crowed, but not now days. I don’t say that one cannot plant things on Good Friday or do anything else, it’s just the way I was raised. I do pray for my plants that I will be planting on Good Friday and at the rate they are growing the last couple of years, they need tons of praying just to produce a certain amount. Now Good Friday for me fell on April 7th. So I am sort of lost as to wondering if there is another Good Friday that has to do with planting??
Tipper I hope the test for granny goes well this Friday and I will be praying for your mom.
I planted several early crops like peas, onions, and spinach, over a week ago, but I always plant potatoes on Good Friday because my father did.
We’re in Zone 6 and will plant seed potatoes today. Yesterday (Good Friday), we visited all of our raised beds and vertical gardens with early plants that are safe in our zone. Neither my wife’s nor my parents had a Good Friday planting tradition. ~ Thank you for sharing so much with your readers and viewers!
Hi Tipper, My late Dad always planted green beans around Good Friday and potatoes around Victoria Day Here (May 24th) He planted broad (Lima) beans as early in February as the ground could be worked
According to my planting calendar Good Friday is a day marked as a very fertile day for planting. Also, the moon is a “dark” moon, meaning it is waning. A dark moon is good for planting root crops. Since Easter is determined by the time of a full moon, Good Friday will always come after a full moon, good for potatoes, etc.
Good Friday and Easter (and Easter Monday which until recently was a holiday in NC) are all very late on the calendar this year . . . about as late as they can be. Because no one else has said it, I will. Easter always falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the 21st day of March (first day of Spring).
My Pa, who raised a garden every year after 1929 until the mid ’50s, did plant potatoes and onion sets on Good Friday.
Good Friday and Easter (and Easter Monday which until recently was a holiday in NC) are all very late on the calendar this year . . . about as late as they can be. Because no one else has said it, I will. Easter always falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the 21st day of March (first day of Spring).
My Pa, who raised a garden every year after 1929 until the mid ’50s, did plant potatoes and onion sets on Good Friday in Raleigh.
I should have thought about that! But I didn’t! Must mean you are smarter than I am!
Unable to plant potatoes today (Good Friday) as there is a good amount of snow cover yet. In fact, planting season is not going to happen here in WI for a few more weeks (if we’re lucky). However, it all evens out and we get plenty of vegs and fruit to freeze, can or dehydrate. However, so glad some of you can be planting at this time!
I have never heard of planting on Good Friday.
When I read the comment I left a few years ago, I surely added an extra number by mistake to the snow total as I don’t recall having that much snow on the ground since back in the 90s unless it was accumulated from several storms! Anyway, todays weather is nothing like what I wrote about back then. My garden is plowed and ready to plant but the ground is a little damp and it’s only 44 degrees outside. I think I will wait till later in the month or the first week in May to plant anything.
I live in what is called upstate SC (Greenville County). The night time temps for the next four nights are predicted to be two nights in the low 40’s and two nights in the upper 30’s. Tomorrow’s daytime temp is in the 40’s- 40 digress colder than Wednesday’s high of 86 degrees. Daddy was right, there will usually be a cold spell each year around Easter.
I have planted potatoes on Good Friday before, but isn’t going to happen this year. I’m running behind this year on getting my garden plowed and tilled up.
We live in an area where frost in mid May is fairly common. My Mom has planted a short row of green beans on Good Friday since I was a kid and I’m 55 years old now. I can think of very few times when the frost killed her beans. We would have a heavy frost at the house but the garden area must be in enough of a “dip” in landscape that the frost didn’t hurt her beans. I tilled her a row last week and Daddy laid off a row yesterday so Mom will be planting a row of beans later this morning.
My garden area usually escapes the May frost, I did till up a couple very short rows for a row of contender bunch beans and a pink bunch bean variety. I planted these bean seeds earlier this morning. Hopefully we will both have “early” beans this year.
I do not recall any specific connection to planting ON Good Friday growing up in KY but a local saying here in north GA is plant BY Good Friday. But since Easter is a movable date, my experience over 30 years here is that it ranges from too early for most things to just right to too late. It works well as a ‘rule of thumb’ to galvanize me to be getting ready starting in February. Over the years I have come to rely mostly on soil temperature, as already mentioned here. I think the folk sayings were about that and about being after frost as well.
One could plant in southern WV on Good Friday, but I don’t believe I would. I do think mommy and Bobby had a man on a tractor till the garden right around Easter time. Awoke to a cold rain this morning. Will be leaving out to Charlotte’s airport about 1:30 to catch a 737 to St. Louis…God bless you all this good Friday. Remember exactly what it cost to save us…. THANKYOU, my Lord!!
It was common for my grandparents and the older generations to want to plant their beans and such on Good Friday. They would have a problem this year, it is raining. Even plowing the garden spot up would have been tough this year because it has not been dry enough, they would not plow wet ground, it will clod up and the clods will be like bricks and will be there from now on. I think we will want this rain later on, it is already predicted to be a hot dry summer. Bradly’s comment about his father in law could have been about mine. He would have a 2 acre garden each year even before he retired and he and my mother in law would fill 3 of the largest chest freezers up and also can other things each year. They did not buy can vegetables at the grocery store. Working in his garden was one of the great joys of his life. He did not worry about the signs, only the soil temperature and moisture, but planted and worked his garden like it was done in the past and would have bumper crops each year. Along with his garden, he would also plant 5 acres of corn for feed when he had his horses and still work a full time job. I guess he thought he had to plant a big garden, 5 girls and 5 son in laws along with the grandchildren would all go to see them and eat with them in between the morning and evening church services every Sunday. We all loved them.
Yes indeed; my parents, my grandparents and my great grandparents always planted their root crops on Good Friday. Always.
potatoes
beets
turnips
carrots
parsnips
Never heard of planting or not planting on Good Friday, but I kinda treat Good Friday with the same reference as I do a Sunday. That is an old tradition handed down by Grandmothers on both sides of my family. My background is Osage (Native American) on one side and Lebonese/Syrian on the other. A, strange mixture I am sure. I imagine if we go back several generations on everyone’s background, as far as planting goes, we could rack up a lot of strange and not so strange thoughts on the subject. Have a Blessed Easter.
My family never planted on Good Friday, always broke ground before Good Friday but planted after Easter to ensure everything would be ok, or at least their belief all would be ok. I guess here. Really after Easter in the Deep South there is really no worry of frost Most of it was probably a lot o folklore
My mother tried to plant some things on Good Friday. We lived in Kannapolis, N.C. Sometimes the weather was warm, but sometimes we had snow on Easter. I wish you and your family a Happy Easter!
Tipper,
I’m not 100% sure, but I believe we always tried to plant our potatoes on Good Friday.
Sanford, we tried to plant our potatoes each year in early March. This year I planted some grocery store potatoes that had eyes on them, I have a pretty stand and will see what they do.
Randy,
Have you ever heard of people just cutting the eyes out of the potatoes and only planting the eyes?
I heard the story more than once of people using the eyes to plant and the rest of the potato for consumption.
We never, to my knowledge, only used the eyes.
My Daddy always planted on Good Friday and we always had a big garden and canned lots of vegetables.