“Super” avocado trees
A "super" avocado tree is one that make lots of fruit, more fruit year-after-year than other trees of the same variety in a particular grove. The most important question is why a tree is super. And secondly, can you make a copies of it? (I want one in my yard!) But...
April in Jacques’ food garden
Walk around with me as Jacques points out what is ripe to eat in his garden full of treats in April. Maybe you would like to be able to snack on these in your yard. And of course, we take a few detours along the way: What companions to plant around a new fruit tree?...
How I compost, today
This is how I make compost, today. Each morning, I take the “chicken bucket” from the kitchen down to the chickens. The chicken bucket is what we use to hold kitchen scraps: banana peels, bits of onion, coffee grounds, ribs of kale leaves, egg shells, even detritus...
African gardens put ours into perspective
In March I traveled throughout South Africa and Lesotho, where I visited a number of farms, nurseries, and home gardens. On my return flight, I recalled the G.K. Chesterton quote, “The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set...
Supporting The Yard Posts
My goal with The Yard Posts is to help others grow food at home, with a focus on vegetables and fruits -- especially avocados -- in Southern California. How do I do this? I write short articles – “posts” – each Friday, and I augment each post with photos and sometimes...
Drip irrigation versus micro-sprinklers for fruit trees
My experience is that, while both drip irrigation and micro-sprinklers work well to deliver water to fruit trees in Southern California, they come with advantages and disadvantages. And one method is not best for all situations. Because of this, even in my own single...
Smart planting of avocado trees where soil is heavy and rainfall is high
You can get lucky and plant an avocado tree in your yard and find success on your first try. But for many people, myself included, it takes killing a few trees to learn how to grow an avocado successfully in a particular situation. One situation that many people find...
Avocado tree clones itself
Unlike many other fruit trees, avocados are hard to root. Rooting is where you cut a branch off a tree and stick it partly in the ground or a container so that the cut branch will form roots where it is buried. It's a way of copying, or cloning, a tree. Try this with...
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