(Click here to go directly to the Support Options page)
As the tagline says, my goal with this website is to help others grow food at home, with a focus on vegetables and fruits — especially avocados — in Southern California.
How do I do this? I write short articles – “posts” – each Friday, and I augment each post with photos and sometimes video, as well as outside research.
But unlike almost every other website, I share primarily firsthand experience. I take every photo, and the dirt from under my finger nails is behind every Yard Post. You trust me here because I’m not merely regurgitating (and definitely not plagiarizing) what you can find elsewhere. I share what I’ve actually grown and what I’ve seen growing in other yards and farms while my shoes were physically on the ground of those yards and farms.
Then you fellow gardeners and farmers chime in with insightful comments and questions. There’s constant action on the website, and it is two-way.
The Yard Posts engine
A lot goes on under the hood — or behind the screen — to run the website beyond the composition of posts. There are technical maintenance costs, such as paying for a server to host the site, paying for the domain name, etc. But mostly there is my time and effort.
Direct support
For a few years I ran advertisements on the website to pay for it. You may remember those ads. Running ads is how most websites earn money.
One problem with this, however, is that a website must be filled to the brim with ads in order to earn much. But the content of a website suffers so much when interrupted by numerous ads.
Other downsides of ads are that they slow down a website’s loading time, and most ad companies attempt to track you and share and sell the information they collect on you as you use the internet.
A second major way that websites make money is through “affiliate commissions.” That means the websites get a cut when a reader clicks a link from the website over to the affiliate company’s and buys a product.
But am I likely to give you an honest review of a particular brand of seed-starting mix or fertilizer if that brand is paying me for clicks and sales?
I want to feel totally free to call balls and strikes wherever and whenever I see them. I think you want that from me too. And I think you enjoy the reading experience of The Yard Posts without a ton of ads.
So I’m choosing to have you — the reader and beneficiary of The Yard Posts — support it directly.
Customize your support
Everyone gets a different amount of value from The Yard Posts. You may find only a single one of my posts valuable, or you may have enjoyed the whole archive of hundreds of posts for many years.
You may have never asked a question in the comments section, or I may have helped you with numerous situations in your yard through that back-and-forth.
The Yard Posts means different things to each of you, and each of you are capable of contributing a different amount. I’m perfectly aware of that, and I’m perfectly satisfied with that.
If you’d like to show your support with $5 dollars, great. If you’d like to support with $5 each month, great. If you’d like to contribute more, great. I’m grateful for whatever value you place in what I do here, and for however many of your hard-earned dollars you’d like to send in to help keep me writing.
Three support options
For convenience, I’ve set up three contribution options. One is a $5 per month contribution. That works out to roughly $1 per post.
But there are two other, customizable options. You can contribute any amount each month. Or, if you don’t like the monthly thing, you can just contribute any amount, one time.
(See the Support Options page here.)
What do you get for your support?
Because of your support, you keep getting Yard Posts every Friday. You give me the ability to justify to my wife and kids the time and effort that I spend creating them. Thank you for that.
Moreover, you ensure that there won’t be ads interfering on the website.
But I want to show my appreciation for your support in extra ways. For one, I will give priority to answering your questions. I can’t respond to all comments and questions on the website, but I will make it a point to answer yours.
Also, whenever I make things available for sale — calendars, avocados, etc. — I will give advance notice to supporters via a separate email list.
I hope to try out some further ways to show you my appreciation for your support in the future, as time and finances allow.
(A few of you have sent me donations out of the blue in the past. Those were fantastic surprises. Thank you. I’ve already added you to the supporter list.)
Other ways to support
Not ready to share a few dollars? Telling your friends about the good stuff you find on The Yard Posts is helpful. Also, share your knowledge and experiences in the comments sections of posts. We can all learn from one another.
Support pages
You can go to the page showing all three support options here, or go directly to the option that best suits you by clicking one of these links:
I’m in with 5 bucks a month. You and The Yard Posts 100% worth it!
Thanks, Vasco!
If I lived down the road from you Greg, I’d buy you a beer about once a month and pick your brain about growing avocados and stuff. Your posts helped me save several avocado trees from heat and led me to other fantastic avocado resources, so cheers!
I wish you would move down this way! Thanks, Randy!
Hi Greg, Is there any way to make a donation without creating a login and password etc?
Hi D,
Let me look into that. I’d like to make it happen if I can.
Hi D,
You can send a donation in the mail, but here on the website a username and password are needed to use the system I’m using. If you’d like to use the mail, let me know and I’ll send you an address. Thanks for asking.
Hi Greg, yes I would like to make a donation periodically via mail. Have enjoyed your site! Thank you
I just discovered this website, and have learned so much.
Thank you, Greg.
Fiona
Thank you for taking the time to say so, Fiona.
Greg, I’d be more than happy to make a contribution. But I TRULY need some help! I’m mind boggled right now. The more I read, the more I screw myself(can I say that). To be honest, I’d trust your word over anyone!!!!! I’m in So Cal too. I want a dwarf avocado tree, with big avocados, no fiber, fruits practically year round…does this tree even exist? Sorry to bother you, don’t know where to go.
Hi Narine,
There isn’t a tree that exactly meets your description, but let me suggest how you can get close.
How big do you want the tree to get at maximum size?
Trying to make a donation, but the system won’t let me in or reset my password (too many failed attempts). Help me help you… ?
Hi Dan,
Thanks for trying and letting me know. I’ll email you and get your password reset.
Hi Greg,
I’ve read most of the posts on your site at this point and am tremendously appreciative of both your knowledge and desire to share. I wanted to make a one time contribution but was “billed” for $0, despite entering another amount. There was also no page asking for my billing information, so clearly it can’t have processed anything.
I’m not sure whether this is an issue for other people’s accounts or just mine, but wanted to flag it for you either way. Hopefully we can get it fixed soon so I can become a proper supporter!
Thanks for taking the time to let me know. It should say “The price for membership is $0.00 now.” And then below that it says “Make a Gift” and there’s a box. If you enter an amount in that box, it should ask for payment information down below your account information. Does it appear that way when you try again? And does it actually bill you for the amount you desired?
Update: it only appears to be a problem when I’m using Google Chrome (both on my phone and computer, and using both regular and Incognito modes). When I tried it in Microsoft Edge and Mozilla Firefox, the payment boxes popped right up as expected, and the transactions appear to have processed correctly.
Let me know if I can do anything to help you test or troubleshoot the Chrome issue. I wouldn’t want you to miss out on potential revenue!
Thanks so much for trying all of that out and reporting! I really appreciate it, and I’ll try to get to the bottom of it. Thanks for the support.
Hi Greg,
Your advice on avocado growing is invaluable. Our little Reed is healthy, and I’m hoping it won’t mind being kept at 8’ tall in our tiny front yard. Our Mira Mesa soil has lots of very round rocks that make digging deep holes extremely difficult; we use a very long, very heavy crow bar. The soil below is solid clay. Was this a riverbed eons ago? We have used the mound method to aid drainage, and it seems to be working.
Veg culture is another matter. We are using Mountain Meadows Mushroom compost, hoping the salt content is not a concern. It sure makes the soil feel better. Our earthworms are abundant and fast decomposers in the double spin bins we use.
Brassicas are out though- the white butterflies put and end to those efforts.
I really enjoyed reading your book, The Mountain School. We had an Ethiopian girl live with us in the American Field Service program when we were seniors in high school. She had Peace Corps teachers for four years in Addis Ababa, before coming here. Talk about a world of difference, as well as the similarities of two 17 yr. old girls with the same feelings and aspirations.
Thank you, and your family, for all the time and effort you spend on enlightening us in our gardens. Your children are very fortunate to have such caring parents.
Hi Barbara,
Thank you so much for writing to share all of that. It’s great to hear that your Reed is doing well so far in its mound. I helped a gardener plant a Reed and GEM in a mound a few years ago on the other side of the canyon from you in Rancho Penasquitos, and his trees are also doing well. They’ve got their first crop growing right now.
I also love how the MMM compost feels. I think it has something to do with the airiness of the straw in it.
It so happens that the reason I discovered Peace Corps and joined was that an Ethiopian guy I worked with at the time told me that he had been taught by a PC teacher when he was young and that he thought I would enjoy that job. (I was always asking him to teach me Amharic and share food and tell me about Ethiopian culture, etc.) So I went, and I did.
Best wishes this year in the garden. If you just check under the leaves of brassicas every couple days during the first month after planting and wipe off the baby caterpillars, the plants should do fine. Best time to plant them is on Labor Day.
hi greg, my name is nick and i am a yard post member. I live in rancho san diego, a little bit south of you, and have almost 400 avo trees (1-2 1/2 years old). quick anecdote, i think i met you at elis’ one time and you were weed wacking next to the goats. anyways i have reed and lamb but they won’t be ready for for another year or so, so i would like to buy some from you so i can give them a try so i know what i am talking about when i describe what they are supposed to taste like to my friends. thank you for your posts, you don’t know how much they mean to me and my family when it comes to how we operate our small farm. if there is a more direct line for me to buy some avos from you let me know. gracias senor.
nick g
I live in Redondo Beach, only a few blocks from the ocean. I try to interpret all the information you give me and apply it to my own garden which is of course very small. I love the scientific way you explore each topic. I will be down in Fallbrook 8/21 and 8/22 was wondering if I could drive by your garden and take a peek so I can relate a little bit more to the information you give. Please let me know if this is possible. Thank you