Transplanting fruit trees in Southern California

Transplanting fruit trees in Southern California

Yes, you can move a fruit tree that you planted in the wrong spot last year. (I’ve done it.) Yes, you can move a fruit tree that you planted in your current yard to the yard at your new house. (I’ve done it.) I feel like I can give you tips on doing this successfully...

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Cocktail grapefruit tree: a profile

Cocktail grapefruit tree: a profile

My neighbor had a citrus tree that she called a grapefruit, but it made curious fruit: it was the size and shape of a grapefruit but the rind was golden yellow, unlike any grapefruit I’d seen, and the flavor was so sweet that it tasted artificial. How could this be a...

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Avocados have brown skin? Here’s why

Avocados have brown skin? Here’s why

The spring of 2023 in California was abnormally cool, making avocado thrips abnormally populous. Thrips are tiny insects that chew on avocado fruit as the fruit is small, and this chewing becomes brown scarring. The thrips damage can result in large patches that some...

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Growing potatoes in Southern California

Growing potatoes in Southern California

Most staples are laborious to get from the ground to a form that you can use in the kitchen. Wheat, for example, takes a lot of work to dry and thresh and grind into flour. Potatoes, by comparison, are not only easy but the harvest can be as fun as finding treasure....

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Cher’s garden of gratitude

Cher’s garden of gratitude

Cher is 73 now. She’s had both hips replaced – her left hip twice – and she is still working on the flexibility in her new right knee. She showed me how deeply she can squat, which is important for two activities that she loves: gardening and surfing. I met Cher and...

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How Brad grew his avocado grove

How Brad grew his avocado grove

You and I, we go to the nursery and buy our avocado trees. Not Brad. He is so well-rounded in avocado growing skills and knowledge that he has developed a new grove of hundreds of avocado trees from scratch. Starting from seed Brad planted over 200 avocado seeds,...

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Growing strawberries in containers

Growing strawberries in containers

Do you ever get bug bites in your strawberries? That's my main challenge to harvesting perfect, plump, red ones. So the last couple years I've grown fewer strawberries in the ground and more in containers, which has vanquished the bug threat. I start the strawberry...

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GEM avocado trees pollenized by a Bacon

GEM avocado trees pollenized by a Bacon

Most avocado trees make plenty of fruit without other types of avocado trees nearby -- when the weather is good. But the spring of 2023 was cool, and that is not good for pollination. (The photo above shows GEM avocado trees flowering during yet another foggy day on...

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Welcome . . .

I'm Greg. My goal is to help you grow food at home, with a focus on vegetables and fruits -- especially avocados -- in Southern California. I write a new "Yard Post" every Friday.

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