by Greg Alder | Apr 9, 2019 | Misc |
This evening (Tuesday) I’ll be joining the San Diego Geranium Society to talk about Home Food Gardening — growing vegetables and fruit trees. Visitors are welcome! The meeting begins at 7 p.m., we’ll discuss the topics for around an hour, and...
by Greg Alder | Mar 22, 2019 | Misc |
Spring has sprung! After a relatively long, rainy, and chilly winter for Southern California, plants are bursting their buds to soak up some sun. I can’t recall a winter around here that actually lasted until the end of the calendar winter. But March 20 has...
by Greg Alder | Mar 1, 2019 | Misc |
I was walking with a friend through his fruit tree orchard a couple weeks ago when he knelt down to pull up a weed. “Oh, I love that plant,” I said. “These things are everywhere. What is it?” “It’s called deerweed. It’s a native plant. It has little yellow and orange...
by Greg Alder | Dec 28, 2018 | Misc |
Winter in Southern California is a season of unique gardening opportunities. What follows is a collection of winter Yard Posts — both recent and from a few winters ago — related to only this season. I’m sure you’ll find some you’ve never...
by Greg Alder | Dec 21, 2018 | Misc |
California Bees and Blooms has become my guide to a more lively, colorful, and fruitful yard. Just a few mornings ago, I photographed bees collecting pollen on a California poppy flower, one of the first to open this winter. There was lots of buzzing and flashes of...
by Greg Alder | Oct 26, 2018 | Resources, Vegetables |
The most common question we got this weekend at the “Ask a Master Gardener” table was, “What can I plant right now?” The event was the Fall Festival at Point Loma Nazarene University. Usually while asking, the person was looking at the broccoli seedlings I’d...
by Greg Alder | Sep 28, 2018 | Misc |
Most years, we spend a couple weeks visiting friends and my wife’s family in Oregon at the end of summer, and my garden has to fend for itself. How to prepare it for my absence? I worked extra hard for this September’s vacation because it was going to be a full three...
by Greg Alder | Sep 21, 2018 | Misc |
“Did you see any kitties in the backyard?” my mother-in-law asked my son. “No, they were hiding in the avocado tree,” he said. They were. Only it wasn’t an avocado tree. This was a backyard in Oregon. But the leaves of the tree were...
by Greg Alder | Aug 31, 2018 | Misc, Soil |
It had been about a year since I’d replenished the wood chips throughout my yard and the mulch was wearing thin. I was having trouble finding a convenient source. I started to get anxious. Then a couple weeks ago my neighbor offered a pile that had been sitting...
by Greg Alder | Aug 24, 2018 | Misc |
Summer is on its last legs, I’ve bought my seeds for fall vegetables, but before we start talking about the next season let’s look back and update some stories about the remarkable past winter and passing summer. Click the title links below and...
I'm Greg. My goal is to help others grow some food at home, with a focus on vegetables and fruits -- especially avocados -- in Southern California. I write a new "Yard Post" every Friday. 
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