How to plant and stake an avocado tree
Even though I’ve planted many avocado trees, I was nervous putting in this little Jan Boyce, or JB for short (pictured on left). It is a particularly fine-tasting variety that I'd been trying to get my hands on for years. But I needn’t be too nervous. I’ve already...
Effects of a warm and wacky winter on deciduous fruit trees
Are your deciduous fruit trees acting funny this spring too? Frightfully funny? Look at a couple of my trees today compared to this time last year, and then let’s explore why they’re behaving this way. Finally, is there anything to do about it? Bloom is a full month...
Hand pollinating avocados
It was 95 years ago that J. Eliot Coit, who would later be called the father of the avocado industry, wrote the article “How to make the avocado tree bear.” In other words, we've always wished avocado trees gave us more fruit. One way to encourage production is to be...
Growing fruit trees in Southern California
April is a dynamic time to talk about fruit trees -- as they are all blooming and flushing -- and this last week I did so as the monthly speaker for the Ocean Hills Garden Club in Oceanside. When allotted only an hour to cover "Growing fruit trees in Southern...
How to outsmart garden weeds
Weeding the garden is not mindless work. This struck me the other day when my wife was helping in the garden and I saw her do what we all instinctively do to a weed: rip it out of the ground. That's generally a fine thing to do with a small weed, but this was a big...
Growing and harvesting lettuce in Southern California
Gardening as sport: This year, I took the challenge of growing more lettuce than my brother’s family could eat. He and my sister-in-law fuel their family of six with a quasi paleo diet, which includes a lot of lettuce, and they would be spending a week at our house in...
What’s the best kind of avocado to grow?
This question is unanswerable in an objective sense. But I'm game to attack it with a fun and practical twist: I'm imagining that I just moved into a new house with a blank yard . . . One tree: Hass If I had the space for only one avocado tree, I would plant a Hass....
Rain is coming! How do I garden?
I get frantic when rain is forecast. Southern California doesn’t get rain often, so I really feel the need to take advantage of each event. Rain provides ideal conditions for certain garden tasks. Some are best done just before the rain starts, some during the...
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