A decade ago, at the end of June 2013, my pregnant wife and I began moving into our house. We bought this place in Ramona using every penny we had. It seemed to offer almost everything we wanted: plenty of indoor space for us to fill with a family; and an acre of sandy loam dirt for me to grow our food.
Importantly, it had sun. We were moving from a canyon near the San Diego Zoo, where my plantings were under an umbrella of tall ficus, palm, and eucalyptus trees. It was comfortable living, but the shade was so limiting for my plants that one year, in order to access more sunlight, I grew all of our vegetables in pots on our roof.
What have I planted and what have I learned in this yard over the last ten years?
Vegetables
That area shown in the photo above is our front yard where I’ve planted most of our vegetables. Here it is today:
The sun baked that bare dirt during our first few summers until I formed vegetable beds and captured some of its energy with plants.
Only compost?
I decided from the first day that I would only use compost, plus wood chips and some manures, in order to keep the soil fertile. Here is my first potato planting in the new yard in September of 2013:
Has only compost worked? In general, yes. My yields have been as good as those in any other vegetable gardens that I’ve visited, except for some summer crops that have been damaged by root knot nematodes (but I believe that’s a separate issue).
Only five avocados?
In the first week after moving in during July 2013, I planted my most beloved trees. Five avocado varieties I chose: Hass, Reed, Lamb, Fuerte, and Sir-Prize. I calculated that they would be enough to satisfy our avocado needs throughout the year no matter how many kids we added.
Here is what a few of those trees looked like at planting, and then today:
In 2015, I added a Sharwil because I wanted to plant a tree to mark the birth of our second child. In 2016, I added a Pinkerton because, well, I don’t remember. I do know that I planted my Gwen in 2017 to mark the birth of our third child, but my memory of the other twenty or thirty avocado trees I’ve planted since is blurry. I really like avocados, okay? Maybe I need to try them all. Just get off my back!
What I’ve realized with the avocados and elsewhere in this yard is that I’m never done.
Dead spots
There are three spots in this yard that have killed multiple trees, but one spot is the deadliest. I’ve planted a Granny Smith apple, a Sharwil avocado, and a Flavor Grenade pluot in this location. All of them have grown poorly for a year or two and then dried up.
It took seven years for me to recognize that it was due to the location and not the trees or my care. The soil looks fine, is not shallow, but cannot grow anything except weeds and tough annual flowers like borage.
Was something spilled here, something like motor oil? Neighbors have told me that the previous owners buried at least one engine somewhere in the yard. Or was it drenched in herbicide? I found a few old containers of Roundup and Kleenup in the garage when we moved in.
Do you have any dead spots in your yard?
Going with what thrives
The climate of Southern California between the ocean and the mountains is similar enough such that vegetable planting times are mostly the same and mostly the same types of fruit trees can be grown. We can all plant broccoli in September. We can all grow citrus. We can all grow bananas.
But bananas don’t thrive in this Ramona yard. It is a little too hot and dry in the summer and a little too cold in the winter.
In our previous yard close to the ocean, we never once saw frost on the ground. Coffee plants even grew well there. Here in Ramona I’ve killed dozens of coffee plants. Not only did they find the winter too cold, but the plants sometimes died during summer from the intensity of the sun.
But some plants love the extra hot and dry, and the extra cold. Grapes absolutely love this yard. I’ve discovered that it is ridiculously easy to grow grapes here, and pomegranates, and pluots.
I have planted more grapes, more pomegranates, and more pluots because they taste great, and watching them grow so well makes me feel successful even if the success is really due to my yard’s climate and soil — not to anything I have contributed.
Blueberries
I did not expect blueberries to thrive here, but they do. This took a few years of adding sulfur pellets in order to lower the soil’s pH, but today my bushes are taller than my kids and produce more berries than they can eat. This has been a very pleasant surprise.
Moreover, these blueberries are in full sun and do not get fried in summer like the coffee plants.
Evolving needs and goals
Ten years ago, it was just me and my wife. Now we have three kids, and they are eating more every day.
My goal in the beginning was to grow about 80 percent of our fruits and vegetables, which I do accomplish these days. It has been easier to grow the fruits compared to the vegetables. Vegetables require much more work and planning than fruit trees, in my experience. With fruit trees, less effort is required other than patience.
For the last handful of years we have had chickens so I can provide the family with eggs. Chickens have been a great addition to the yard, and it’s likely that we’ll only add more in the future.
I don’t know what else we’ll add in the next ten years, but I do know that having lots of sunlight makes for lots of opportunity.
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I planted bananas around the outside of our pool for a tropical feel, but there is one section that the bananas only live for 2-3 years and then die back, soil and all is identical, one day I’ll figure out what the heck happened. On the bright side, it allows more sunlight to hit my Reed and Hass tree in the late afternoons as I’m on a hill. On 2nd thought maybe the Reed and the Hass conspired to take the banana out for sunlight, hmmmm.
Scheming, diabolical avocados!
Bananas have fruit and then die what you have left is growing small new tree at the base. They live at most three years
I love your yard. It kind of reminds me of mine (I’m in Simi Valley). You inspire me to plant more trees, especially avocados!
Hi Vickie,
Yes, I think Ramona and Simi have a lot in common. We’re both Southern California, but we’re both pretty different from Oxnard!
I also live in Simi Valley and enjoy learning about avocado trees. I have six trees with fourteen varieties grafted onto. I would love to exchange scions with you and any other like minded people (especially locals).
Hi Greg,
Love the history. I was wondering how many avocado trees you have planted – 30! We moved to our 0.6 acre, hilly lot in the Oakland hills in 2016, and I have so far planted 5 avocado trees since Covid hit 3 years ago. Our soil is clay with almost no sand, so so far one has died (Little Cado) but the remaining (Hass, Fuerte, Mexicola and Pinkerton) are all a bit stunted, not growing nearly as fast as yours. Our property also has many tall, 75 foot cypress trees that provide a lot of shade as well. We shall see…
Any chance you can post an aerial view of your property (e.g. Google Maps Satellite)? That would be really interesting, to see the sun and shade spots.
Thanks, Nikhil. I’ll see about getting a good aerial shot to post. Our property is nearly square and our house is nearly in the center. The west half (backyard) is full of trees and native brush; I don’t irrigate any of it. The east half (front yard) is full of sun and it’s where I’ve done all of my planting. It’s not quite that simple, but that’s the gist. I thought of walking the property and posting a video to go with this post. Maybe I’ll do that in the next few days.
Long time reader and first time commenter here (partially because I’m a homeschooling mom of four littles 5 and under!). I so appreciate hearing all of these garden experiences and I hope to get to where you are someday in our garden! Something I’ve been curious about—I am in topanga canyon nearer the San Fernando Valley side so not much marine layer and hot summers, with an elevation just over 1k feet. We get very hot temps in the summer, maybe 10 degrees less than SFV/Simi during peak heat (so like 105-110 during heat waves) and then in winter we get below freezing snaps due to being by the seasonal creek bed. Super duper clay soil. Is this an ok environment for avocados? I’ve heard of neighbors trying to grow them and killing them possibly due to the colder temps but I wonder if it’s just the wrong care being given. Would love to hear if you have any thoughts or advice!
Wow! You’ve got me beat, and you’ve got a great excuse. We only have three to homeschool, and they’re older and easier now too.
I know the Topanga Canyon area a bit. I think your part nearer the 101 has similar weather to where I’m at in Ramona, in that you’ve got elevation and heat but also some winter cold issues. For these, avocados can get through with some extra help in their first few years. They would benefit from shade cloth over them during any heat over 100, and in the winter they would need protection if the night gets below about 30 degrees.
The clay soil you have is a separate challenge (that I don’t have here). But it is not insurmountable. Usually, the best solution is to plant on a mound. Here is a post describing this: https://gregalder.com/yardposts/planting-avocados-in-poor-soil/
Here are posts on avocados and heat: https://gregalder.com/yardposts/protecting-avocado-trees-from-heat/
And avocados and cold: https://gregalder.com/yardposts/protecting-avocado-trees-from-cold/
This is the encouragement I was hoping for! I think I’ll plant a couple of avocados in the fall or spring, and I’ll let you know how it goes. 🙂
My whole family is reaping the benefits of the advice you’ve shared here. It has all made a tremendous difference to our garden. And what a delight it is to watch little ones growing and picking home grown fruits and veggies!
I have a very productive Hass; it produces heavy one year and very light the next. I want to plant another one because I prefer Hass to any other avocado (I’ve tried many and this remains my favorite). Is there a way to train the second Hass to produce heavily in the year opposite the first tree?
I love this question, Ellen. The answer is, Yes!
It may require that you remove all fruit from your second tree at some point in order to force it to bear its “ON” crop in the opposite year as your first tree. But that will do it. One caveat is that bad weather may cause both trees to have a low-fruit year at some point and you’ll have to restart the process because in the following year they’ll both want to set a lot of fruit.
I have another idea for you. It’s more intensive but it only requires that you manipulate your original tree. You can girdle about half of the major limbs on your tree each year to force the tree to act like two trees that bear in alternate years. I have been playing with this on my main Hass tree for the past few years. I will make a video to show you.
Thank you for your prompt answer. ellen
Very inspiring yard, Greg.
It’s funny, the last few years my Pomegranate tree (Inland NorCal) has had fruit split and my wife spoke to a grower at the farmers market, and he said he doesn’t water them. I always dismissed it. And now I read your caption, that you also don’t water them, either.
How do they not die?
Hi Ron,
I don’t know. I guess pomegranates just don’t need much summer water. For my trees specifically, they don’t make much fruit when young if I don’t water them, and the fruit is on the small side. But for the old tree (I only have one old pomegranate), it makes lots of big fruit without irrigation. I have neighbors whose old pomegranates do the same without irrigation.
I try to make a video every couple years going through all my trees and naming them. The video gets large and size. I have about 120 trees on a little postage stamp lot. Greg, you’ve seen my trees but you haven’t seen my picture of the yard from 1998 of when I planted my first two avocado trees. I’ll try and remember to dig it up and send it to you. I started grafting in 2010 and I’m still grafting today. I’ve tried growing lots of pluots but they never do well in my location and I’m amazed when I see your pluot trees loaded with fruit. Hi Dug holes for trees that would not drain enough for avocado or citrus so I planted cherimoya and those holes because the cherimoya don’t seem to have a problem with soggy soil and poor drainage. I’m trying to figure out which mango tree I should get considering it can’t get too large and I like very sweet fruit. Let me know if you have a suggestion.
I’d love to see that video, Rick. I’ve seen that your cherimoyas are very healthy, and that’s interesting to know that they are planted in poorly draining spots.
I don’t have enough mango experience to talk about the innumerable varieties available, but I’ve never tasted a mango off of a backyard tree in Southern California that wasn’t very sweet if allowed to ripen fully.
Greg- thanks for your posts- I really enjoy your insight. I recently moved to Fallbrook and have planted 6 avocado trees (2 Hass, 2 Reed, 1Bacon and 1 Fuerte). My question has to do with shading my trees for their first summer. I “painted” the trunks and exposed branches and recently sprayed them all with Surround WP. I don’t really want to build shade for them but I will if mandatory
Hi Dave,
Building a shade structure for your young trees is not necessary in Fallbrook. It’s good that you painted exposed branches. The Surround should help too. Unless we get well over 100 degrees, just being on top of the watering will be sufficient to get your trees through their first summer happily.
Thank you- it seems a little daunting when I read about all the troubles people have with attempting to grow avocados. I really want to see the tree’s fruit and grow healthy so I’m trying to do as much as possible!
Thanks for sharing the history of your yard. It’s nice to know I am not the only one to have failures and dead spots! Wish I could grow avocados here in Palm Springs! I have finally given up and won’t torture anymore trees! Continued gardening success!
I will never stop torturing avocado trees here in Seattle, so I say you shouldn’t give up yet in Palm Springs either!
Greg,
Pretty much everything I’ve planted, I was inspired by you and this fantastic site. From my 8 Avocado trees, 13 Tangerine/Mandarins including two Shiranui, my collection of various Pluots, Nectaplums and Pluerrys, everything is thriving and I’m up to around 70 total different trees. Your calendar and Avocado harvest season chart hang on the wall above my desk at home. My orchard is the envy of all my friends and family and every time they ask me where I learned so much about growing fruit, I just tell them about “this dude named Greg in Ramona” and I try to send them to your site.
Thank you, again, for sharing so much knowledge with us. We are all so lucky to live here and lucky to share in everything Mother Nature gives us.
/Dave
What a cool message, Dave! Thank you, and I hope I get to visit your orchard someday so I can also join in the envy.
“Neighbors have told me that the previous owners buried at least one engine somewhere in the yard.”
I’d see if any of your fans/patrons have a metal detector and would be willing to hunt your yard for those engines. Something that big in the ground would be an easy find if on your parcel.
Thanks for the idea, Youngster. For some reason, I had never thought about trying to actually locate that stuff.
Thanks for the link to the CAS meeting. My total harvest off my GEM was 18 pounds this year, 10 pounds last year, but looks to be mostly vegetative growth next year. Congrats on 10 years of food production in your demanding but fruitful locale! I was planning to bury an engine in my yard to increase iron content but now having second thoughts. 🙂
Congrats on your nice GEM haul this year, Randy. They must have been spectacularly tasty.
I, like Vickie, live in Simi Valley Ca., near the hospital. If you remember I mentioned to you some time back that the hospital had a plot of land (about 2-3 acres) that is going to be changed from an avocado orchard to a parking lot. It is just 1/4 mile north of my 1 acre property so it is very easy access for me and I have plenty of room for the other varieties I desire. Thankfully they haven’t mowed the trees down yet. I, like you, am trying to get as many varieties of avocado trees as I can. So far I have six trees with fourteen different varieties grafted onto them. I would love to identify the tree varieties on the hospital property. I have permission to take as many scions as I want but I don’t know what varieties they are. I have 20 or so Zutano seedlings almost ready to be grafted onto and 12 more seeds that I am going to pot today. As for shade, I have city streets bordering three of the four sides of my property giving me plenty of access to sun with no shade problems. That means that I can use avocado trees to create shading wherever I need it for the other (peach, orange, guava, banana, pomegranate, loquat etc.) 30 or so fruit trees on the property. With all the rain we have had this year we should have a bountiful fruit crop with no contamination from city water. This past year has been an off year for my Fuerte (large enough to hide a two car garage under), but I am looking forward to a crop in excess of 600 this year. They are about the size of my thumbnail now but growing fast. Thanx for all the great info you give us. I look forward to your posts every week
Hi Ken,
I remember, and I’m glad the trees are still standing. I hope to someday get there and see the trees myself. I’m very jealous of your giant Fuerte.
I’m jealous of all of your knowledge, but at least you share it with us. I think Fuerte is about the best avocado around. I just wish it had a thicker skin, like the Lamb- Hass. Keep up the good work…Ken
It all looks great, but honestly you should probably add some more avocados.
I’ll tell my wife that I have your permission. Thanks, Winn!
Greg, great hearing how it all started for you. Like everyone else, your posts has been so helpful to us newbie growers. I’ve been trying to maximize my ultra small lots here in Redondo Beach. Lots are only 25’x100’. Not much left after the house and driveway 😂.
I’ve been using my small front area, 7’x13’ for my starter grove. Started with 10 avocados (5 Haas and 5 Bacon) 4 of the 5 Haas did not make the first year. I added 3 Reeds to replace the Haas and they seem to be doing ok. I then added 2 Pinkerton and one Sir Otis just because. I also have 5 Pink Lemons that seems to be thriving. I recently added a Honey Crisp and Gala apple, Elberta Peach, a Nectarine and 2 Pomegranates. Lastly I have an assortment of other citrus like Satsuma and a couple of navel Oranges. All in all I’m at about 26 trees. All young and only a few fruiting.
This is all in preparation of moving, in the next 5 years, to our 5 acre lot in De Luz on the Riverside county side.
The sun here near the beach is great if it’s not May Grey or June Gloom. The De Luz areas seems to be some what similar except the highs are higher and the lowers are a bit lower. The property has great access to the sun. All my trees are in containers so they can be transported to the new property when it’s ready. Hopefully I can do as well as you and get 80% of our fruit and veggies and 100% of our eggs from my new property and future grove.
How wonderful to have this visual documentation of your garden and what a transformation! Sadly my avocado growing attempts here in NorCal failed; therefore have been grateful for your avocado shipments throughout the season. Keep’em coming!
Thanks, Mariangela. Hope you can get some avocados going at some point. In the meantime, I’ll try to keep you supplied!
Love the 10 year update. We’re just down the road from you near Lake Murray. I’ve had similar success with grapes, pomegranates and pluots. A few others that seem very happy here in SoCal are White Sapotes, Figs and Mulberries. I’ve never tried planting blueberries in the ground – I’ll give that a shot now. Bananas grow so fast for us and look fantastic. But I can’t get the fruit to mature. We’re on a north facing hill so probably just not getting enough sun. Anyway, love your posts.
Hi Greg, Do you grow figs? I’ve read a lot of contradiction for watering and fertilizing, and have had many mixed years of fruit set and quality. I’ve read that figs do not need much water or fertilizer, and I’ve read they need a lot of water and fertilizer. I have a black mission fig tree, and this year, for example, the breba crop is quite large, but still green, and we’ve had a lot of mixed hot and cool days. The tree looks healthy, but generally, by now, the breba figs would have ripened. The second crop is already starting to form. So just curious if you grow figs, and have any info on how you take care of them and how they would be doing?
Hi Greg! I got a new Haas…it’s about 5 or 6 foot. I planted on a bit of a mound because I am in SoCal in heavy clay soil. She looked great for 6 weeks, and even grew some baby avocados. Now the ends of her leaves are a bit burned and the leaves have mottled yellow/light green from the edges inward. What’s up with her?