by Greg Alder | Oct 31, 2026 | Misc |
I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my attempts to teach my kids to grow food over the last dozen years, and it is through these mistakes that I’ve learned nine ways to do it better. They might not work for you, your kids, or your context. But in case they do:...
by Greg Alder | Oct 24, 2026 | Misc |
I couldn’t help but photograph and ask about every food garden I saw even though I was in Indonesia for another reason. It was a surf trip. But for a few days before and after the surfing, I explored parts of North Sumatra to observe what people grew and what...
by Greg Alder | Jul 3, 2026 | Misc |
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...
by Greg Alder | May 21, 2026 | Misc |
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...
by Greg Alder | May 15, 2026 | Misc |
“Harvesting honey completes a circle in your yard,” said Jacques, as he was guiding me through the process of taking honey from my hive of bees which he had helped me install three years prior. He explained: You grow these plants that flower (strawberries,...
by Greg Alder | May 8, 2026 | Misc |
Friends have been asking about these topics: 1. How will you support your tomatoes this season? I use cages for some, and I use stakes and string for others. Check out this post: “Comparing tomato supports: cage vs. stake-and-string” 2. Your avocado tree...
by Greg Alder | Apr 4, 2026 | March, Misc, Weather |
One day it got up to 101 degrees in our yard, and on another day we played at the beach and got sunburned and the ocean water felt like summer — in March. It was hot, but how unusual was that for March? And how did plants in the food garden respond? HOT...
by Greg Alder | Mar 10, 2026 | Misc, Native Plants |
In 2019, I wrote a post about growing a “Bee Garden,” a patch of flowering plants that provides food for bees and other pollinating insects. The point was to bring them in and keep them around such that they would also pollinate my nearby vegetables and fruit trees....
by Greg Alder | Feb 13, 2026 | Misc |
In 2025, I visited my friend Jacques about once a month to walk through his eclectic garden of edible plants and taste whatever was ripe. Our goal in filming these tours was to generally show the diversity of what can be grown in Southern California and specifically...
by Greg Alder | Jan 9, 2026 | Misc |
To help you make sense of, and apply to your own yard, the experiences I relate in my “Yard Posts,” I’d like to paint a picture of my yard’s physical aspects: where my yard is located, how big it is, the type of soil underneath, the climate above, and so on. I’ll add...
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