Flowers for bees all year in Southern California
For several years, I have recorded which flowers I see bees feeding on in my yard and elsewhere in Southern California, as well as the dates I see them. For example, this month I noted that there are many bees visiting the flowers of my bolted greens (above). Below is...
Which avocado fruitlets should you remove?
At times an avocado tree will set more fruit than it can grow to maturity without negative consequences. The tree might be too small such that carrying much fruit will stunt its growth, or the fruitlets might be too numerous on a single branch such that it will bend...
That string of storms
At my place in San Diego County, it began to rain on the night of December 27 and it continued on and off until the sunny skies of today, January 20. That's three straight weeks; the longest dry stretch in between storms was only four days. But is that unusual? The...
Cut-and-come-again lettuce and greens
In spring and summer, I tend to grow my lettuce and greens as individual plants, and I harvest them by picking individual outer leaves. But during the cooler times of the year I often switch to the cut-and-come-again method, where I sow the seeds densely and harvest...
Four reasons to grow vegetables in winter in Southern California
I hate to see folks letting their vegetable gardens go dormant in the winter. The eggplants and tomatillos and cucumbers decline in the fall, and they don't replace them with cool-season crops. They just wait to get started again in the spring, as if they live in...
Day avocado: a profile
Enjoy this video profile of an avocado variety that comes from Florida and is rarely grown in California. Here the fruit matures early, even earlier than Fuerte. In Israel, the Day variety has been found to be a good rootstock in some situations. I present the Day...
Avocados for sale, 2023
Thank you to everyone who ordered avocados in 2022. It was a joy to share with you different varieties and to connect you to the farmers throughout Southern California who grew them. For 2023, I'm predicting the following harvest schedule: January: Fuerte,...
Tools for pruning fruit trees
My son and I were pruning our macadamia nut tree when his loppers couldn't cut through a branch. I saw that they were undersized for the branch. "Don't force it," I said. "If it feels like you have to use a lot of strength, it means you need a different tool." I gave...
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