Miles’s placenta tree
For Cass, the choice of planting his placenta under a Fuerte avocado tree was obvious, but for Miles, born last week, the options felt overwhelming at times. First, we didn't know if we were going to have a boy or girl. Before Miles was born we did decide that we...
Fall is my favorite vegetable growing season in Southern California
Not spring. Maybe elsewhere, but in Southern California now is the time. I had almost forgot this lesson, and I hadn't planted one of the rows of the vegetable garden, until about a week ago when I recalled all of the advantages of growing in the fall. For one, the...
Sizing rain tank #2
I just picked up our new rain tank from the Bushman factory, and I chose to size it like our first one because that one worked very well last year. (I suppose I got lucky in sizing that first one.) In other words, I chose a size that would hold between three and four...
Growing sweet potato vines under avocado trees
Last fall, when I harvested sweet potatoes, I stuck a slip in the ground under the drip line of the Hass avocado tree. I wanted to see if the vine would take and survive the winter. It did, and it grew vigorously all summer until yesterday I tore out the foliage and...
You sure can grow long-day onions in Southern California
October begins onion planting time, and I just put in some Walla Walla seedlings. Next week I'm going to sow Ringmaster seeds. These are "long-day" varieties, meaning they are said to be best adapted to northern latitudes, places that have long summer days, places...
Summer water reflections
We moved in to our new house with the goal of spending no more than $50 per month on water while growing 80% of our fruits and vegetables. Last summer (2014) we got close to getting 80% of the produce we eat from our yard, but each time a water bill came I was...
Fourteen hornworms on one tomato plant
Spent the last couple weeks in Oregon and Washington, and came home to notice a lot of leaves missing from an Early Girl tomato plant. Figured a hornworm had done some munching, but when I went to find it I found a second, and then a third, and then I kept finding...
How to cope with a heat wave
Just as there's always a cold snap or two every winter, we get a couple heat waves every summer that challenge the plants. We just made it through a second August heat wave, where five days were over 95°. Two weeks ago we had four days over 95° and a new daily record...
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