It’s a cornucopia, dig in.
Find all of my Yard Posts under the categories and curations below.
AVOCADOS
A tour of John Schoustra’s innovative, organic, low-input, high-density avocado grove
Removing avocados to prevent sunburn
The Hellen avocado tree: a profile
Young avocado trees cannot handle competition
The Gwen avocado tree: a profile
Girdling Lamb avocado trees to get fruit every year
Smart planting of avocado trees where soil is heavy and rainfall is high
Stewarding special avocado trees, with Stefan Koehne
Gray Martin revisits his “Eight Predictions” from 1996
Mistakes staking and tying avocado trees
California Avocados: a delicious history, by Rob Crisell (book review)
Reed avocado high-density grove
What’s a “Jumbo Hass” avocado?
GEM avocado tree next to Bacon has most fruit
Avocado trees as “efficient factories,” with Mary Lu Arpaia
Why only one variety of avocado in grocery stores? with Mary Lu Arpaia
The Sharwil avocado tree: a profile
How to plant a clonal avocado tree with Sam Garibay and Consuelo Fernandez of Brokaw Nursery
Jaime Serrato talks about growing GEM avocado trees
Feral avocado tree in San Juan Capistrano
Sharwil avocado tree: video profile
Carmen avocado tree: video profile
Cadway avocado fruit: a profile
Who pollinates avocado flowers?
Can you mulch avocado trees too much?
Carmen avocado tree: a profile
Avocado varieties in the cold: observations 2024
Avocados have brown skin? Here’s why
How Brad grew his avocado grove
GEM avocado trees pollenized by a Bacon
Heavy bloom hastens avocado maturity
Drip irrigation on newly planted avocado trees
Avocado grower, don’t be greedy: remove fruit
Growing avocado trees in containers
Results of girdling non-Hass avocado trees
Girdling avocado trees for consistent fruiting: update, results
Girdling avocado trees for consistent fruiting
Beware of rootstock suckers on avocado trees
Advantage of multiple avocado pollenizers
Wisest way to harvest GEM avocados
Importance of sun and water for avocado trees
California avocado superbloom 2023 update
California avocado superbloom 2023
Jan Boyce avocado tree: a profile
Old California avocado grove tour
How late can Lamb avocados hang?
Which avocado fruitlets should you remove?
Growing avocados in California’s Central Valley
What happened to the Gwen avocado?
Reed and Lamb avocados for sale
Managing alternate bearing in avocado trees
Sir-Prize avocado tree video profile
The story of one avocado tree that sprouted from a compost heap
Pinkerton avocado tree: a profile
Stewart avocado tree: a profile
Mexicola Grande (3-1-1) avocado tree: a profile
Planting avocados in poor soil
When to give up on an avocado tree
Avocado fruit drop: Why? When? How many?
Should you remove avocados from a small tree?
Overhead watering for evaporative cooling on avocado trees
The GEM avocado tree: a profile
What are the best avocado pollination conditions?
Tour of avocado variety collection in San Diego County
A feral avocado tree in Southern California
Mobile avocado pollenizer tree
Video presentation: Growing avocados: FAQs and your Qs
Avocado rootstocks: what do they matter?
Mayo / Covocado avocado: a profile
The Holiday avocado tree: a profile
How to tell if an avocado is ripe
Where to get avocado scion wood
How far apart to plant avocado trees
The Hass avocado tree: a profile
Will avocado fruitset in 2020 be like 1965?
The Fuerte avocado tree: a profile
The Bacon avocado tree: a profile
White powder on avocado branches
Avocado varieties for year-round harvest
Protecting avocado trees from heat
The Reed avocado tree: a profile
The Lamb/Hass avocado tree: a profile
Pruning avocado trees to keep them small
Should you buy a big or small avocado tree?
What kind of avocado tree do you get when you plant a seed?
Protecting avocado trees from cold
How to plant and stake an avocado tree
Who is eating holes in your avocado leaves?
How much and how often to water avocado trees in California
The quetzal and the wild avocado
What’s the best kind of avocado to grow?
Where and how to buy good avocados
Avocado leaves turning brown? Here’s why and what to do
Growing avocados in Southern California
Avocados get sunburned — what to do?
My favorite way to eat a Reed avocado
How long until an avocado tree fruits?
Can you grow an avocado tree in a small yard?
Best resource for growing avocados
How to water a newly planted avocado tree
Heat tolerance of avocado varieties
Grafting avocados, the best how-to resource I know of
How the Fuerte avocado really got its name
Cross pollination of avocados, or why I planted a Hass next to a Fuerte
Growing sweet potato vines under avocado trees
Do you need two avocado trees to get fruit?
Do avocado trees need a lot of water?
Among some of the oldest avocado trees in California, at The Huntington
CITRUS
Cocktail grapefruit tree: a profile
Watering citrus trees in Southern California
Who’s eating your citrus leaves?
Shiranui, Pixie, Gold Nugget mandarin taste comparison
Shiranui mandarin tree: a profile
Grafting citrus rootstock suckers
Satsuma vs. Kishu: comparing two early mandarins
Which kind of citrus tree do I have?
The Bearss lime tree: a profile
Saving the Parent Washington Navel orange tree
The Gold Nugget mandarin tree: a profile
Meet Frank Meyer, of the Meyer lemon
Dwarf, semi-dwarf, and standard citrus trees: What are they, really?
When to pick oranges and tangerines
When and how to prune citrus trees
Orange blossom or lemon blossom?
The best fruit tree for kids, and the winner is . . . Kishu!
Don’t spray for citrus leafminers
DECIDUOUS FRUIT TREES
Hummingbird on Red Baron peach flowers
Citation rootstock for stone fruit trees: avoid?
Don’t prune apricots, cherries, and grapes in winter in Southern California?
Snow Queen nectarine tree: a profile
Grafting deciduous fruit trees in winter in Southern California
Dormant spray deciduous fruit trees?
Growing pluots in Southern California
Summer pruning deciduous fruit trees
Pinch to shape young fruit trees
Effects of a warm and wacky winter on deciduous fruit trees
Messages from your deciduous fruit trees after the chilly winter (2018-2019)
Where to cut a branch on a deciduous fruit tree
Think about sunshine when pruning deciduous fruit trees
Don’t cut off the fruiting wood: pruning lesson number one
Should you prune a bare-root fruit tree?
The Home Orchard: a book review
Oh, the mistakes I’ve made: Not thinning enough fruit from a plum tree
My best advice on pruning deciduous fruit trees: keep them small
Bare root season is here! The best time to buy and plant a deciduous fruit tree is now
Shoemaker Farm U-pick persimmons, Ramona
Don’t thin apricot fruit in order to increase fruit size
Apricot flowers becoming fruit
FRUIT TREES GENERAL
Growing apples in Southern California
Growing dragon fruit in Southern California
Rejuvenation pruning of stone fruit trees
Scion Exchanges (of the California Rare Fruit Growers)
Old guava trees in Southern California
“Has this fruit tree been fertilized?”
Transplanting fruit trees in Southern California
Don’t prune apricots, cherries, and grapes in winter in Southern California?
Why prune fruit trees in winter in Southern California?
Cherry trees in Southern California
Growing multi-graft fruit trees
The Perfect Fruit by Chip Brantley: a book review
Pruning a door into your fruit tree
Captain Bucklew’s California mango trees
Eating pineapple guava flowers
Watering fruit trees with drip irrigation
Harvesting fruits and vegetables skillfully
What to do with fruit tree prunings?
Fruit trees can bloom after stress
Painting the trunks of fruit trees
Fruit trees for a year-round harvest in Southern California
Grafting a pollenizer branch into your fruit tree
Using wood chips as mulch for fruit trees
Setting up micro-sprinklers under fruit trees
How much to water a fruit tree in Southern California, roughly
Keep mulch away from tree trunks?
Growing fruit trees in Southern California
Where should you buy a fruit tree?
Don’t judge a tree by its first fruit
Your fruit tree is grafted — why? and so what?
Fruit trees hiding at the San Diego Zoo
What kind of fruit tree should you plant?
BERRIES, VINES, OTHER FRUITS
Pink Lemonade blueberry bush: a profile
Growing strawberries in containers
Blueberry grape variety: a profile
Growing small blackberry and raspberry bushes on stakes
Interplanting a strawberry patch
Growing raspberries in Southern California
Growing bananas in Southern California
Growing grapes on a chain link fence
Grapevine on eave to shade house
Propagating grapes with cuttings
Passion fruit: best edible, evergreen vine
Growing blueberries in Southern California
VEGETABLES
How I prepare my vegetable beds for planting
Want kids to eat vegetables? Grow them
Growing zucchini in Southern California
Growing fava beans in Southern California
Kellogg’s Breakfast tomato in Southern California
Tomato skin cracking: why? how to prevent?
Cut-and-come-again lettuce and greens
Four reasons to grow vegetables in winter in Southern California
Growing vegetables in raised boxes
Protecting vegetable sowings from birds
An extraordinary zucchini plant
Freezing tomatoes from the garden
Dealing with root knot nematodes in a vegetable garden
Installing drip irrigation for a vegetable garden
Growing cucumbers in Southern California
Comparing four mixes for starting vegetables seeds
Starting vegetable seeds: six keys to success
Spacing and interplanting for broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage
Comparing my compost with Recipe 420 for starting vegetable seeds
Vegetable planting chart for Southern California
Growing summer lettuce in Southern California
Easiest vegetables to grow from seed
Harvesting fruits and vegetables skillfully
Experiment: comparing composts for vegetable seed starting
Early spring vegetable garden in Southern California: timings of sowings and plantings
Can you start vegetable seeds in compost?
Controlling aphids on broccoli and cauliflower: an experiment with the kids
Sowing vegetable seeds in the ground in Southern California: Three keys to success
Fertilizing vegetables with compost: pros and cons
Growing peppers in Southern California
Comparing tomato supports: cage versus stake-and-string
Growing ‘Green Finger’ cucumbers
When to plant tomatoes in Southern California
How tall can dinosaur kale get?
Growing cilantro in Southern California
Tomato varieties for Southern California, 2019
Don’t rush to plant warm-season vegetables in Southern California
Growing corn in Southern California
Volunteers show when to plant vegetables
Should you grow vegetables from seeds or plants?
Growing greens in Southern California
Growing peas in Southern California
Using wood chips as mulch for vegetables
Growing garlic in Southern California
Growing broccoli and cauliflower in Southern California
Growing vegetables under fruit trees
Which vegetables can I plant now in Southern California?
The best way to water a vegetable garden
Starting a vegetable garden in Southern California
Growing and harvesting lettuce in Southern California
Dealing with aphids on broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, and cauliflower
Growing carrots in Southern California
Growing onions in Southern California
The best way to support tomato plants
The art of transplanting a vegetable seedling (in five steps)
Where to plant a vegetable garden
Oh, the mistakes I’ve made: planting vegetables at the wrong time
Which vegetables can you plant now?
Glass Gem corn, and Happy Thanksgiving!
Adding soil and compost to seed-starting mixes
Harvesting tomatoes and broccoli at the same time?
How long to run drip irrigation on vegetables
Don’t transplant carrot seedlings?
Fall is my favorite vegetable growing season in Southern California
You sure can grow long-day onions in Southern California
Let’s say this squash is supported
‘San Diego’ tomatoes, and supporting tomatoes
NATIVE PLANTS
Woolly blue curls: native plant that feeds bees
Monkey flower: native plant that feeds bees
Coyote bush for bees in October
The wild grape of Southern California
The elusive, white-flowered ceanothus crassifolius
San Diego County Native Plants by James Lightner: a book review
Ceanothus, wild lilac: the blue bushes on the hills
WATERING
Drip irrigation versus micro-sprinklers for fruit trees
Using swimming pool water on vegetables and fruit trees
Kinking drip irrigation tubes to save time and water
Rain tank to driplines: a cheap and effective system
Watering fruit trees with drip irrigation
Getting more fruits and vegetables from less water (slideshow)
Five ways to get more fruits and vegetables from less water
The easiest automatic irrigation
Lowering a food garden’s water bill
Smart irrigation timers and automation
My watering schedules for vegetables and fruit trees
Using the evapotranspiration rate to water your garden better
Unirrigated fruits and vegetables in Southern California, summer 2019
Fall / Autumn watering of fruit trees and vegetables
Getting rainwater from a barrel to your plants
Drip and micro-sprinkler irrigation troubleshooting guide
How to water plants through a heat wave
Get your hands dirty: Discover the truth about your irrigation practices
What is the best time of day to water your plants?
A new year, a new rain tank, a new weather pattern
PESTS
Rats! Protecting your garden fruits and vegetables
Fruit tree pest management ideas worth trying
Eliminating ants from potted plants
Green caterpillars on broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and kale
Fruit tree pests and diseases: I am not afraid
Earwigs, pillbugs, slugs, and snails: stopping their damage to your vegetables
Protecting vegetable sowings from birds
Dealing with root knot nematodes in a vegetable garden
Protecting vegetables and fruit trees from rabbits
Dealing with squirrels in a food garden
Eating the rabbits that eat my garden
The best gopher trap: It’s a Cinch
RAIN, HEAT, WEATHER, CLIMATE, SEASONS
Comparing roof materials for collecting rain
Lessons from the September 2024 heat wave
The concentrated summer of 2023
Food garden meander during solar eclipse
The accuracy of weather and climate forecasts
Effects of the cool, wet spring on our Southern California gardens
Santa Ana winds and your garden
Would you rather garden in the tropics?
Caring for your garden during a heat wave
Rain is coming! How do I garden?
Gardening benefits of a hot-summer climate
El Nino is not rain, and it doesn’t come to California
Rain met drought, drought doesn’t care
July is a strange month to be thinking about rain, but . . .
What if we lived off rainfall alone
WHAT TO DO EACH MONTH
What to do in a Southern California food garden in January?
What to do in a Southern California food garden in February?
What to do in a Southern California food garden in March?
What to do in a Southern California food garden in April?
What to do in a Southern California food garden in May?
What to do in a Southern California food garden in June?
What to do in a Southern California food garden in July?
What to do in a Southern California food garden in August?
What to do in a Southern California food garden in September?
What to do in a Southern California food garden in October?
What to do in a Southern California food garden in November?
What to do in a Southern California food garden in December?
MISCELLANEOUS
African gardens put ours into perspective
The layout of a food garden: where to plant what?
Fires, Farms, and being Neighbors
Growing wheat in Southern California
Who grows the rest of your food?
Backyard farming: scaling up your garden
Why diversify your food garden?
UC Riverside seeks to deliver mRNA vaccines through lettuce
Mountain Meadow Mushrooms kit: grow your own
Southern California food gardening calendar 2021
Growing sunflowers in Southern California
Should you get a wood chipper?
Growing fruits and vegetables for kids
Southern California food gardening calendar for 2020
Summer collection of Yard Posts, 2019
Who helped you grow your lunch?
Learning from the California Gardener of the Year
Master Gardeners, ready to help
Do you know the leaves in your garden?
Preparing a garden for a summer vacation
Food gardeners are . . . different
Reading my grandma’s 1961 Sunset Western Garden Book (My, how things have changed)
Best books for food gardeners in Southern California
Gardening at the grocery store
How long does it take to grow a productive yard?
Davis Garden Show: best podcast for Southern California gardeners
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