Growing summer lettuce in Southern California
“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...
Avocado fruit drop: Why? When? How many?
In the spring you see flowers on your avocado tree that soon become green fruitlets. Wonderful! Your tree is making avocados! Then they start dropping. What did you do wrong? Why is this happening? When will it end? How many are going to fall? Why avocados drop:...
Snow Queen nectarine tree: a profile
Gave my neighbor some Snow Queen nectarines from our tree the other day and she sent me this text: “Greg, those nectarines were by far the most delicious things we have had in our entire life.” Now, my neighbor is really friendly, and maybe she just wanted to...
Five ways to get more fruits and vegetables from less water
My perspective is that I want to water fruit trees and vegetable plants enough so that they thrive -- not just survive -- while also trying to get the most production out of every drop. This is, of course, much easier said than done. But here are five strategies that...
Easiest vegetables to grow from seed
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,...
Growing raspberries in Southern California
Most of my raspberry plants have come from friends and family who live where raspberries grow best. The Sunset Western Garden Book says that raspberries grow best in Zones 3-6 and 15-17. These Zones cover the central and northern California coast, and then western...
Should you remove avocados from a small tree?
It's exciting to see a small avocado tree flower and set fruit. But should you allow it? My rule of thumb is to remove all avocados from a tree until it's nearly as tall as me. What this means is that if you've recently planted an avocado tree from a sleeve or...
Overhead watering for evaporative cooling on avocado trees
“Does not the spraying of the foliage of the trees protect them to some extent in hot weather?” asked J.B. McLaughlin, rhetorically. He had seen the effects of this practice for mitigating heat when he tried it during the devastating heat wave of more than a century...
Gardening Calendar 2021
Avocado Calendar 2021
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