The best gopher trap: it’s a Cinch
In my yard, the most damaging, relentless, and challenging pest to control has been gophers. Birds peck plums and squirrels may steal plums, but a gopher will kill a plum tree. While I haven’t lost any plum trees to gophers, I’ve lost other fruit trees and innumerable...
How long does it take to grow a productive yard?
Well, it depends what you mean by productive, but for me, I had the goal of growing almost all of the fruits and vegetables my family could eat when we moved into our house in July of 2013. Actually, 80% was the arbitrary number I had written in my notes. So...
Avocado trees get sunburned — what to do?
Believe it or not, avocado bark is like our skin and gets sunburned. If left unprotected, a branch that is exposed, especially to the south or west sun, will burn. The branch in the photo above is on a young Pinkerton avocado tree that grew out a long limb which...
How to water plants through a heat wave
Heat waves make me a worried gardener. What can I do to help my plants? Should I water again? How much? This summer of 2017 has started off with a blast of multiple heat waves for Southern California's valleys (the beach has been spared by the presence of a marine...
Eating the rabbits that eat my garden
I shot the second rabbit, but not as cleanly as Chance had shot the first one. It was bleeding on the driveway next to the passion fruit vine and the vegetable garden, from which it had occasionally dined, and I felt terrible. Chance felt bad too, which is why he is...
My favorite way to eat a Reed avocado
There are tiny cults surrounding a few types of avocados here in Southern California, home of the now-worldwide avocado industry. Fuerte Some people remain forever fans of the original commercial avocado variety, Fuerte. It has a cool (or should I say, strong) story...
Get your hands dirty: discover the truth about your irrigation practices
How do you know if a plant needs water? You can look at the plant's leaves and make a guess, and you can get a rough idea based on how you've watered it in the past. And if you've just watered a plant, how do you know if you've given it enough? You can estimate the...
Chickens: my garden’s little helpers
I used to think of chickens as a threat. When I lived in Lesotho, my neighbor's roaming chickens repeatedly ate the leaves of my chard down to the stems despite my attempts to fence them out. I couldn't have imagined that I would see them as I do today, as my garden's...










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