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...
Rain makes dreams come true
This morning I awoke to the sound of rain. It's the most pleasant sound, a muffled pecking on the roof. This is the first storm in a series of four that the National Weather Service says will give us three to six inches by Tuesday, an event with more potential to...
Davis Garden Show, best radio podcast for Southern California gardening
How can the un-local Davis Garden Show be the best one for Southern California? It's partly that the radio show/podcast is that good, and it's partly that co-host Don Shor grew up in La Jolla and knows about growing plants here better than we...
Orange blossom or lemon blossom?
Can you tell? Hint: the purple blush on the back sides of the petals gives it away. See the comments section for the answer.
What kind of fruit tree should you plant?
There are so many options. In Southern California, we can grow pears, bananas, oranges, persimmons, figs, peaches, plums, nectarines, jujubes, cherimoyas, sapotes, pomegranates, tangerines, grapefruit, apricots, pluots, mangos, just to name a few. How do you choose?...
Grocery store vs. Backyard chicken egg
Which one of the above eggs is from the grocery store and which one is from one of the chickens in my yard? And why is there a difference in yolk color? Find the answers in the comments section in a few days.
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