Experiment: comparing composts for vegetable seed starting
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...
Tour of avocado variety collection in San Diego County
I was walking through a friend's grove last week and this thought grabbed me: During April, some early avocado varieties are still hanging on the tree while late varieties are nearly full-sized; so if there's a single best time to see avocados on trees of many...
A feral avocado tree in Southern California
There are some avocado trees in Southern California that survive on rainfall alone. Some that I know were once part of old groves while others appear to have grown as wild seedlings from the beginning. Have they tapped into an underground water source? Are they on a...
Mobile avocado pollenizer tree
Maybe you only have space for one avocado tree, but you want maximum fruit production. You could try keeping a small tree of the opposite flower type (A/B) in a container next to your main tree. During spring when they're both in bloom, the bees can use the pollen...
Mountain Meadow Mushrooms kit: grow your own
During a presentation I attended by Roberto Ramirez -- owner of one of the few mushroom farms left in Southern California, Mountain Meadow Mushrooms in Escondido -- he mentioned that they had started selling kits. You could buy one and grow your own mushrooms at home....
Early spring vegetable garden in Southern California: timings of sowings and plantings
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...
Ceanothus, wild lilac: the blue bushes on the hills
Take a drive out of town here in early spring and you can’t miss the blue bushes glowing on the California hillsides. There’s nothing else like them. What are they? Ceanothus some people call them, or wild lilac they’re called by others, and some refer to them as...
Which kind of citrus tree do I have?
Because there is a citrus tree in almost every yard in California, we often inherit one when we move into a new house. Which kind is it? What if there's no one around to tell you? Here I describe how I approached figuring out the identities of a couple mystery citrus...
Welcome . . .
I’m Greg. My goal is to help others grow food at home, with a focus on vegetables and fruits — especially avocados — in Southern California.
I write a new “Yard Post” every Friday.
Avocado Calendar 2021
Gardening Calendar 2021
List of all Yard Posts
What’s it like to live in Africa?
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