The Persephone Days1 begin in late fall when the daylight duration drops below 10 hours of sunlight. Plants need sunlight to thrive and because their performance slows down during this part of the year, the idea is to have the fall/winter garden sown early enough so that the plants can reach full maturity by the time the Persephone Days begin.
Calculating Persephone Days
You can get the latitute and longitude here and then use the US Navy’s daylight calculator to print out a table for where you live. Just be sure to round your lat/long numbers to the nearest four decimal places.
Daylight Hours for Chattanooga, TN
In the region where I live, the last day of at least 10 hours of sunlight is due to occur around November 29, so the crops I grow for my winter garden need to be planted in time to reach full maturity by that date.
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Persephone Days, a term coined by Eliot Coleman, has its root in Greek mythology. Persephone was the daughter of Demeter and Zeus. When she was abducted by Hades and brought to the underworld, her mother was so distraught that she neglected her duties. Being the goddess of agriculture and fertility, this caused the earth to become barren. In response, Zeus had Persephone rescued, but not before she ate six pomegranate seeds. Like the seeds, Persephone would return to the underworld for six months out of the year before coming back to earth to be with her mother. Persephone Days, then, refers to the time of the year during which Persephone is with Hades and her mother Demeter is causing the earth to become barren, which, for gardening purposes, is the time of the year when the daily sunlight falls below 10 hours. ↩︎