by Greg Alder | Aug 27, 2021 | Vegetables |
The first way you succeed at tomatoes is by having realistic expectations, which was the main point of my previous post, “Failing at tomatoes.” The second way is by learning to manage the things that go wrong with your tomato plants and their fruit, and this is the...
by Greg Alder | Aug 13, 2021 | Vegetables |
Your tomatoes aren’t perfect like these of mine? Your plants don’t still have vivid green foliage in late summer? Mine do. You are failing. This is the message that some gardeners receive. This summer, I’ve heard from a number of first-time gardeners who feel like...
by Greg Alder | Jul 30, 2021 | Vegetables |
“Lettuce, a cool-season vegetable, is extremely sensitive to high temperatures,” it reads on page 385 of the California Master Gardener Handbook. Well, the average high temperature in the summer in my neighborhood of Southern California is the low 90’s . . . but let’s...
by Greg Alder | Jul 2, 2021 | Vegetables |
Because my back was sore this week, I employed the kids to do more garden work. For example, they sowed corn. Kids can do this. Corn is one of the easiest vegetables to grow from seed. This post explains why some vegetables are easier to start from seed than others,...
by Greg Alder | Jun 11, 2021 | Fruit, Vegetables |
My five-year-old son didn’t want to sit in front of a computer for another school session. “Can I do work for money?” he asked. “Sure. Let’s go harvest garlic.” With teamwork, I forked the dirt to loosen it around the bulbs and then Miles pulled the tops and shook the...
by Greg Alder | May 7, 2021 | Vegetables |
Over the past couple years I had fun growing carrots of all colors, but at some point I realized that the best tasting carrots were orange. Too often, carrots of other colors were fibrous or bitter. So this last winter I grew only orange carrots. More than that, I...
by Greg Alder | Apr 30, 2021 | Soil, Vegetables |
I start all of my vegetable seeds in homemade compost, as I wrote about last month. (“Can you start vegetable seeds in compost?”) The results are satisfactory. Still I wondered how my seeds would germinate and grow in other composts. Would different composts yield...
by Greg Alder | Apr 9, 2021 | Vegetables |
Early spring is a time of transition in the Southern California vegetable garden when cool-season crops are still growing and being harvested but warm-season crops are being sown and planted as well. This video shows what my vegetable garden looks like here in early...
by Greg Alder | Mar 19, 2021 | Vegetables |
Plants grow according to the weather, not according to the calendar. Plants grow according to the weather, not according to the calendar. Plants grow according to the weather, not according to the calendar. Here are my excuses: It was mid-March, a planting time that...
by Greg Alder | Mar 12, 2021 | Vegetables |
I’ve been starting my vegetable seeds in homemade compost for many years so when I hear someone say that this can’t be done, or shouldn’t be tried, I wonder about their reasons for saying so. In addition to hearing individual gardeners recommend against starting...
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