Oh, the mistakes I’ve made: Planting vegetables at the wrong time
I love hummus, so when I saw a garbanzo bean plant at the nursery last April I bought it. Rookie mistake. Just because you see a plant at the nursery doesn't mean that now is a good time to buy and plant it. Different vegetable plants prefer to grow in different...
Whose flower is this?
You have eaten a part of this plant a million times, and you've almost certainly grown it in your vegetable garden, but you may have never let it live long enough to blossom. Poof. I'll post the answer in the comments section in a couple days.
How long until an avocado tree fruits?
I just planted the avocado tree in the photo above, on February 10, 2017. It's a Hass from a five-gallon container. How long can I expect to wait for an avocado tree like this to bear fruit? Short answer: three to four years. I get such an expectation from the fact...
Fertile soil can be child’s play
You want your vegetables and fruit trees to grow well and provide you with good food, so you seek advice about how to create the best soil conditions for your plants. You encounter this recommendation in Sunset's The Edible Garden book about how to grow...
What to do in a Southern California garden in February
And winter's over. Did you blink and miss it? There are sure to be a few more chilly mornings and a few more rainstorms, but look outside: the plants are already waking up. February could be considered our first month of spring. Native plants are well on their way, as...
My best advice on pruning deciduous fruit trees: keep them small
Opinions on how to prune deciduous fruit trees are innumerable. I have just one: Keep your tree small. I believe it's the single best thing you can do if you want your tree to produce fruit and you want to pick and eat that fruit. A small tree's fruit is easy to pick....
When to pick avocados
My grandpa once asked me when to start picking fruit from his Hass avocado tree. I said February. But it's true that I've been picking one every now and then from my Hass tree since November. They've tasted acceptable, but I know that from February they'll taste...
Free talk on rainwater collection
If you live in the San Diego area, you might be interested in attending a talk I'll be giving in two weeks on rainwater collection. Should've done this two weeks ago, I know. Feels like we're getting our entire winter's worth of rain right now. Above is what my rain...
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