Comparing my compost and Recipe 420 for starting vegetable seeds
Can I find a mix that grows vegetable starts better than my homemade compost? For years, I've been growing my vegetable seedlings in compost that I make at home, but I've desired to discover whether another mix might work better. I want to grow the fastest, strongest...
Nabal avocado tree: a profile
Six minutes of video profiling the Nabal avocado tree: Coming soon is a full, written profile of this variety. All of my avocado variety profiles are HERE All of my Yard Posts are HERE
Getting more fruits and vegetables from less water
On September 23 I made this presentation for Sustainable Ramona. Below are the slides I used. Even though some of them are scant on information and in need of explanation, others should be useful by themselves. I've included every slide. Keep in mind, however, that...
Vegetable planting chart for Southern California
At long last, I've made a single-page chart that shows the best planting months for the most common vegetables! My gardening calendar carries this information with slightly more detail; my posts about what to do in the garden each month carry even more detail (here's...
Water Conservation presentations coming up
On Thursday, September 23 at 6:30 PM, I'll be giving a presentation -- via Zoom -- titled, "Getting More Fruits and Vegetables from Less Water." The talk is part of a series of presentations on using water in our Southern California yards put together by Sustainable...
When to give up on an avocado tree
Breaking up is hard to do, but sometimes you've got to give up on an avocado tree. Last week, I gave up on three. I'll show you which and I'll tell you why. Little GEM with gopher damage The first was the GEM shown above, which hadn't even been in the ground for a...
Succeeding at tomatoes
The first way you succeed at tomatoes is by having realistic expectations, which was the main point of my previous post, “Failing at tomatoes.” The second way is by learning to manage the things that go wrong with your tomato plants and their fruit, and this is the...
Don’t spray for citrus leafminers
Back in the winter of 2015, a neighbor noted how poor my lime tree looked. She said her lemon tree didn't have those "curly leaves" because she sprays it. A couple days later she brought over a blue bottle of the stuff she uses: Bayer Advanced -- Fruit, Citrus and...
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