Easy weeding after first rain
There’s this slice of time a few days to a few weeks after the year’s first rain in Southern California when you can knock out thousands of weeds in minutes with a simple tool and little effort. The first rain falls -- and by rain, I mean at least a half-inch, which...
Charles Dowding
Having received our first rain of the season in Southern California, Charles Dowding is more relevant to us than he was a week ago. Dowding is a market gardener in England, rainy England. And he goes beyond growing and selling wonderful vegetables to writing,...
Should you get chickens?
Our yard feels boring right now. For the first time in a few years there are no chickens running around. Should we get a new batch of chicks soon? Would you like to add chickens to your own yard? Let’s take a pros and cons approach. What do you get out of having...
Southern California food gardening calendar for 2020
(Update: The calendars have sold out.) You may recall my mentioning the calendars that I make in order to help me remember what to plant in the vegetable garden each month, how to care for my fruit trees, and how to water it all. I've found that these calendars save...
White powder on avocado branches
Is it a disease? Is it a beetle boring into the tree? It looks scary when your avocado branches have volcanoes or streaks of white powder on them. What is that white stuff? It is the dried sap. When a branch is injured in some way, the sap runs just like your blood...
Santa Ana winds and your garden
Santa Anas cause many things. They mess up your hair, they put dust into your eyes, they make your lips crack and your throat feel dry, they make the power company shut off your electricity, and of course, they make fires run wild. Santa Anas also make for good...
Fruit trees for a year-round harvest in Southern California
My son’s kindergarten class took a field trip to pick apples at an orchard in Julian a couple weeks ago. My wife asked his teacher if he could go but not pick apples. Can he go on the field trip to the apple orchard but not pick apples? Every so often we notice how...
Handwatering vegetables
I wish that I could water all of my vegetables by hand all the time, but as my family has grown so necessarily has my vegetable garden, and I’ve decided to accept the costs and wastes of watering with sprinklers and driplines in order to save time. During a Southern...
Welcome
I'm Greg. My goal is to help others grow some food at home, with a focus on vegetables and fruits -- especially avocados -- in Southern California. I write a new "Yard Post" every Friday. Custom engraved garden signs
Greg’s book
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