Which vegetables can you plant now?
Even though I refer to my notes from past seasons for precise planting times, for a glance at which vegetables I can plant at any given time I always go to Vince Lazaneo's "Vegetable Planting Guide." Vince is a retired farm advisor for San Diego County with the...
Can you grow an avocado tree in a small yard?
(Last updated May 26, 2021) The answer is yes. My aunt asked me about this yesterday. Her yard space is well-spoken for, but her husband would really like to have an avocado tree. "They get big," she said. They do indeed. Most varieties will exceed 30 feet, if...
Glass Gem corn, and Happy Thanksgiving!
I try to grow some of our fall decorations each year, and this year, instead of squash, I focused on colorful corn. Doesn't get much more vibrant than Glass Gem. A variety from Oklahoma that has a hopeful history, it is available from Baker Creek for about $5 a...
How I grow sweet potatoes
Here's what I do: Buy a sweet potato at the grocery store, dig a shallow hole somewhere in the yard, and bury the tuber. Then I forget about it. I don't even remember exactly where I buried it. It doesn't matter. In the spring it will send up a bunch of little vines...
Adding soil and compost to seed-starting mixes
Did a little experiment with mixes for starting seeds. The "Stone" medium on the left is an E.B. Stone "Seed Starter" Mix that I purchased. The bag says it contains primarily peat moss and perlite. The "Alder" medium on the right is a mixture that I made up using two...
Harvesting tomatoes and broccoli at the same time?
What's wrong with this picture, besides the fact that it's not well composed? If we lived in Oregon, nothing. If we lived in Missouri, nothing. But in Southern California, you don't usually pick both tomatoes and broccoli from the garden at the same time, especially...
Persimmon vs. tomato
I have a challenge for you: Can you tell them apart? Which one is tomato and which is persimmon? And how do you know -- color, sheen, blossom end marking, shape? The answer is found in the comments.
Sow carrots now!
Holy smokes, my carrot seeds just emerged faster than they ever have: nine days! Most sources say that carrots take between one and three weeks to germinate, and I've often found my carrot seeds emerging from the dirt more on the three-weeks end. Why so fast this...
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