What is good about weeds

What is good about weeds

I’m not asking the question, “What is good about weeds?” Here I’m listing six ways in which weeds are good. By definition, weeds are plants that we don’t want wherever they are growing. But in the absence of plants that we do want in those spots, it’s...
Simple composting

Simple composting

My first experience composting was when I dug a hole in the ground and filled it with food scraps, garden waste, pig manure, and peach tree trimmings. Each night when I went outside to relieve myself before going to bed, I found a wild dog harvesting from the compost...
Fertilizing avocado trees

Fertilizing avocado trees

In 2018, I visited the largest organic avocado farm in California. It’s those hills in the photo above — they’re covered with hundreds of acres of avocado trees. And I felt vindicated when I saw that they care for the soil under their trees in essentially...
Using wood chips as mulch for fruit trees

Using wood chips as mulch for fruit trees

Almost any mulch under a fruit tree is better than no mulch, but there are many ways in which wood chips are the best of mulches. Wood chips are what comes out of a chipper machine when a tree trimmer puts branches through it. Wood chips are bits of leaves, twigs,...
Where to get wood chips for mulch

Where to get wood chips for mulch

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...
Teaming with Microbes: a book review

Teaming with Microbes: a book review

A good book changes you. If you looked at my vegetable garden today and compared it to my vegetable garden a couple years ago, one difference you’d notice is the fullness of its beds. Nowadays, I aim to keep plants growing over every square inch of each bed at all...
Keep mulch away from tree trunks?

Keep mulch away from tree trunks?

When some people visit my yard or see photos of my trees, they spot a violation of the rules: Aren’t you supposed to keep mulch away from the trunks of your trees? (That’s my rule-breaking lime tree in the photo above.) It’s true, there’s no real benefit...

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