Growing potatoes in Southern California
Most staples are laborious to get from the ground to a form that you can use in the kitchen. Wheat, for example, takes a lot of work to dry and thresh and grind into flour. Potatoes, by comparison, are not only easy but the harvest can be as fun as finding treasure....
Cher’s garden of gratitude
Cher is 73 now. She’s had both hips replaced – her left hip twice – and she is still working on the flexibility in her new right knee. She showed me how deeply she can squat, which is important for two activities that she loves: gardening and surfing. I met Cher and...
How Brad grew his avocado grove
You and I, we go to the nursery and buy our avocado trees. Not Brad. He is so well-rounded in avocado growing skills and knowledge that he has developed a new grove of hundreds of avocado trees from scratch. Starting from seed Brad planted over 200 avocado seeds,...
Growing strawberries in containers
Do you ever get bug bites in your strawberries? That's my main challenge to harvesting perfect, plump, red ones. So the last couple years I've grown fewer strawberries in the ground and more in containers, which has vanquished the bug threat. I start the strawberry...
GEM avocado trees pollenized by a Bacon
Most avocado trees make plenty of fruit without other types of avocado trees nearby -- when the weather is good. But the spring of 2023 was cool, and that is not good for pollination. (The photo above shows GEM avocado trees flowering during yet another foggy day on...
Heavy bloom hastens avocado maturity
In the spring of 2023, many avocado trees throughout California had a superbloom. During that period I watched the avocados on trees with lots of flowers mature rapidly alongside the emerging flowers and even start dropping to the ground in some cases. For example,...
Citation rootstock for stone fruit trees: avoid?
“I'll be real blunt about this: I’m not a fan of the most common semi-dwarf rootstock that’s out there, Citation,” said Don Shor, owner of Redwood Barn Nursery. Don was speaking on the December 14 broadcast of the radio show he co-hosts, The Davis Garden Show. This...
Don’t prune apricots, cherries, and grapes in winter in Southern California?
“Prune apricots and cherries only during July and August in inland areas and during August near the coast,” reads advice from the University of California. “In grapes, which are commonly pruned during winter, delaying pruning to as late as possible in the dormant...
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