A new year, a new rain tank, a new weather pattern
It's January 2016, and according to plan, we've got a new rain tank for the new year. Our idea has been to install one new tank each year and make improvements wherever possible regarding the size, location, and distribution of the collected rainwater. We got some...
Natives at the roadside
The front half of our yard -- since it's a yard of an acre, I can say the front half-acre -- was stripped of its native vegetation when we moved in. That has always irritated me, particularly because next to nothing replaced it. There was a single orange tree and...
El Nino is not rain, and it doesn’t “come” to California
There seems to be a lot of misunderstanding about El Nino among us non-meteorologists. Here are two examples from Sunset magazine's November 2015 issue: "Before El Nino rears up this winter as predicted, here are easy ways to ready your garden for rainfall." And,...
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...





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