I was away from my yard for the past two weeks. In the spring, after a winter of abundant rain, a lot happens in two weeks.
Here is what is on my gardening mind this week, with links to past posts or videos on the topics. I’m guessing that at least one will be relevant to your yard too.
Weeds
The wild oats are taller than me; the thistles are spreading seed in the wind.
“Before killing it, name that weed”
“How to outsmart garden weeds”
Peach leaf curl
With all that rain, this year is a bad one for peach leaf curl. I’m sure you are also seeing it on your peaches, nectarines, and nectaplums. There is nothing you can do to stop it, and don’t worry, your tree will probably look perfect in the middle of summer as it grows a second set of leaves.
Below I have a video taken after a similarly wet winter (2019-2020). It can give you an idea of what to expect in the next month or two:
In contrast, see this post written after a dry winter (2020-2021):
“Where’s the peach leaf curl in 2021?”
Gophers
Mounds everywhere!
“The best gopher trap: it’s a Cinch”
Peppers
The weather has warmed and dried, and there is no extreme cooling or precipitation in the forecast. May is usually the best month for planting peppers, but considering the weather, I’m going to put mine in the ground in a few days, at the end of April. (Earwigs, please leave them alone!)
“Growing peppers in Southern California”
Avocado flowering and pollination
“What are the best avocado pollination conditions?”
All of my Yard Posts are listed here.
Thanks for your Support!
Greg – welcome back! Wondering if you can embed a poll or some formatted survey so we can submit comments on the adventure box. I’ve taken notes and would love to see others feedback.
My stone fruit trees looked amazing (multiple copper applications etc as recommended) and now ALL have peach leaf curl. Some folks have been picking off the leaves but you’d be left with a Charlie Brown Xmas tree in some cases. I’ll just wait and see but it’s such a bummer.
We have voles – does that trap work for them too? I’m hoping they re-home themselves but that’s wishful thinking as I see all the holes.
We had frost the other day so I’ll wait for Mother’s Day weekend to plant out tomatoes, peppers etc.
This is so timely! I was just googling what to do about the leaf curl on my nectarine tree. Thanks so much for all your valuable information.
Hi Greg. As always, we enjoy your posts. This week was timely reading your embedded post about weeds. The weeds have been beautiful this year and it was Finn who trained me to ID the plants before passing judgement.
Today, I noticed all of the Yerba Santa Plants (just ID’d today – but I think that might be right) are all in full beautiful bloom. I’ve not noticed this before. They are everywhere and some are small trees, but fortunately they seem to grow more near the rocks and don’t really invade the orchard or garden. It’s interesting they are in the borage family. Borage is one I’ve finally been able to grow from Baker Creek seeds, but took many attempts.
Curious your thoughts on these?
Thank you!
Hi Carmen,
I haven’t seen any Yerba Santa in bloom yet. I noticed a bunch near Mount Woodson a few weeks ago, but they weren’t in bloom. I’ll have to look around. And I hadn’t known they are in the borage family.
Borage has done very well in my yard this year. The honey bees are loving it. Now I want to add some Yerba Santa.
Hey Greg!
I recently stumbled upon your site and your YouTube channel looking to identify an avocado tree.
That went very well, thanks to your videos! But we now have an entirely new issue that I’ve been stressing over the past few days.
One of your videos mentioned the leaves of the tree turning yellow and dropping, which is a normal process, but the leaves on our tree seemingly turn brown starting from the base, going up the veins and outwards, then they drop.
I cannot for the life of me find what could be causing this.
Do you have any experience with a similar issue? Everything else on the tree looks healthy. Lots of flowers, the leaves that aren’t affected are a healthy green, even new leaves are growing, it’s just dropped a lot and it’s a little concerning that I can’t find what’s causing it.