by Greg Alder | Dec 29, 2017 | Misc |
Our third child was born last week, a baby girl named Reeve. The nurses put the placenta in a plastic container for us without discussion or funny looks; my wife is a labor and delivery nurse at the hospital, so these nurses are her friends. But also, this had become...
by Greg Alder | Nov 24, 2017 | Misc |
Last week, I bought some dry garbanzo beans at the grocery store and planted them. Will they grow? I don’t know. But I have reason to believe so: Beans are seeds. And I’ve grown other types of dry beans bought at the grocery store in the past, like black beans and...
by Greg Alder | Nov 17, 2017 | Misc |
A few months ago, I edited my bookshelf down to twenty gardening-related books. Of these twenty, three stand out: California Master Gardener Handbook, Sunset Western Garden Book, and The Home Orchard. These three have been, over the years, the most useful to me as a...
by Greg Alder | Nov 3, 2017 | Misc |
When people learn that I grow a vegetable garden and have fruit trees they sometimes ask, “That’s great. Is it all organic too?” Awkward silence. I don’t know how to answer. I genuinely don’t know what people mean by “organic.” It’s not that I don’t know the word, of...
by Greg Alder | Sep 1, 2017 | Fruit, Misc |
Chuck Ingels is one of the main authors and technical editors of The Home Orchard, the best book available on growing deciduous fruit and nut trees for home gardeners in California, and at last week’s Master Gardener conference in Long Beach I attended a presentation...
by Greg Alder | Jul 21, 2017 | Misc |
Well, it depends what you mean by productive, but for me, I had the goal of growing almost all of the fruits and vegetables my family could eat when we moved into our house in July of 2013. Actually, 80% was the arbitrary number I had written in my notes. So...
by Greg Alder | May 12, 2017 | Misc |
Yesterday, I opened the door and my two sons, ages 1 and 3, ran straight for the blueberries. After they’d worked those plants, they dropped down to the strawberries, and then the garbanzo beans, and then the broccoli, and then the peas, and then the carrots....
by Greg Alder | Jan 13, 2017 | Misc |
How can the un-local Davis Garden Show be the best one for Southern California? It’s partly that the radio show/podcast is that good, and it’s partly that co-host Don Shor grew up in La Jolla and knows about growing plants here...
by Greg Alder | Nov 12, 2016 | Misc |
I have a challenge for you: Can you tell them apart? Which one is tomato and which is persimmon? And how do you know — color, sheen, blossom end marking, shape? The answer is found in the comments. ShareClick to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click...
by Greg Alder | Oct 11, 2016 | Avocados, Resources |
While there isn’t a great single resource for growing avocados at home, the best of what’s available is a handbook written for commercial farmers that is edited by Gary Bender, former farm advisor in San Diego County. He taught my Master Gardener class on...
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