Earle’s mangos in Southern California, Part Two: Grafting
We revisit Earle here in mid-July to learn about how he successfully grafts mangos. If you want to grow mangos in Southern California, it is valuable to be able to graft your own because many varieties are not readily available to purchase as grafted trees. Here is...
Outdoor showers in the food garden
"I'm going to water the bananas." My family knows that means I'm going to shower outside using the hose with a watering wand attached and hooked to an old bird feeder stand, placed next to some banana plants. It's one of my favorite parts of summer. I like killing two...
Invasion of the sunflowers
One recent visitor to my yard asked, "Why all the sunflowers?" "I didn't plant them," I said. "Not even one." "You didn't plant them?" "They're all volunteers. I used to plant sunflowers, but lately, every year, they just pop up on their own all over. I think the...
Have you ever seen an avocado do this?
Are there any lessons to be drawn from this?
Watering vegetable seedling trays from the bottom
Have you ever sown vegetable seeds and then watered them only to see the seeds float up with the water? Here is a simple way that I avoid that. Rather than watering from the top, I water from the bottom and let the soil/compost/planting mix pull the water up. Here are...
Thinning avocados from young trees and grafts
This post's goal is to show in action, in real life, the application of the guidelines in the posts listed below. I know it looks harsh and you may think I'm sacrificing too much, but in my experience, this thinning pays off in the following years. This is me doing...
The Wurtz avocado tree: a profile
Is Wurtz that bad of a name? Why can't nurseries leave it alone? They'll call the variety anything: Dwarf Avocado, Hybrid Dwarf Avocado, Little Cado. Anything except the original, real name: Wurtz. "Dwarf Avocado" "Hybrid Dwarf" "Dwarf Little Cado" Wurtz variety...
Do gopher baskets work?
Do they actually protect a tree's roots from being munched by gophers? And once the tree is big, do gopher baskets not girdle the tree's roots? Here are some avocado trees planted in a yard riddled with gophers that indicate the answers: https://youtu.be/F4N59jOe7C0 I...







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