{"id":787,"date":"2016-11-10T21:11:39","date_gmt":"2016-11-10T21:11:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregalder.com\/yardposts\/?page_id=787"},"modified":"2026-02-18T20:07:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T04:07:00","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/yardposts\/about\/","title":{"rendered":"About"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Who writes this stuff?<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

I’m Greg Alder, a Master Gardener with the University of California Cooperative Extension in San Diego County and a director for the California Avocado Society. I’ve been growing food for twenty years now, but I started when I moved to a rural village in Lesotho, Africa, as a Peace Corps teacher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There it wasn’t called gardening. Growing one’s own food was done by everyone as part of daily life. My neighbors in Lesotho taught me how, and I learned it their way: no fertilizers other than manures, no tools other than a spade and a watering can, no vegetable seedlings or fruit trees to start with — you collected and grew everything from seed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I found it challenging and fascinating, but I learned, and I even added some flowers in front of my house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"tholangmakhalachrysanthemums\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Where?<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

That was then. When I returned to Southern California, I realized that some of what I had learned in Africa wasn’t applicable. Gardening is local, as they say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, in Lesotho you sowed almost all vegetables in the spring. It is a mountainous country with snow in the winter — yes, snow in Africa. Yet in Southern California I came to learn that the best time to sow many crops was in other seasons:  late summer (broccoli), or fall (lettuce), or late winter (potatoes).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The goal of The Yard Posts<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Growing food in Southern California is not only unlike in Lesotho but unlike in the rest of the United States. As I gained experience here, I did my best to share with others through the Master Gardener program. Soon, however, I recognized that I needed an additional avenue. Hence, The Yard Posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thought, The Yard Posts could be the source of reliable information and inspiration for growers of vegetables and fruit trees — especially avocados — in Southern California that I wished existed.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From its start in 2014, one of my main goals has been to avoid regurgitating information that I’ve heard elsewhere; rather, my aim has been to grow, observe, experiment and test, and report. My Yard Posts therefore have a lot of “I” — and for this I do not apologize. In today’s age of AI, I have become even more committed to focusing on firsthand experience and personal authenticity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of this, you’ll notice gaps. For example, I have not written a post on growing almonds and I probably never will. Why? Because I haven’t grown any almond trees. In contrast to almonds, I’ve grown many avocados so there are a large number of posts about avocados.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why aim to help people grow food at home at all, by the way? You know how important the skill of growing your own food is. It allows you to provide yourself and your family with cleaner and tastier fruits and vegetables than you can buy — even from the organic aisles at the most expensive grocery stores. Being able to feed yourself and your family gives confidence and independence. Food gardens also make for beautiful yards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are a thousand more reasons, but as a husband I know it’s a worthy cause when I’m able to provide the eggs and greens for my wife to cook for dinner. And as a father of three young children I know it’s a worthy cause when I see my kids gorging on strawberries out in the yard or asking if they can uproot one more carrot to eat, please, Dad!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"WP_20160322_16_11_33_Pro\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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If you’re interested in reading more about my years living in Lesotho, Africa, check out my book, “The Mountain School.”<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Who writes this stuff? I’m Greg Alder, a Master Gardener with the University of California Cooperative Extension in San Diego County and a director for the California Avocado Society. I’ve been growing food for twenty years now, but I started when I moved to a rural village in Lesotho, Africa, as a Peace Corps teacher. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"Who writes this stuff?\n\nI'm Greg Alder, a Master Gardener with the University of California Cooperative Extension in San Diego County, where I've extended the gardening journey I started about ten years ago when I lived in a rural village in Lesotho, Africa, as a Peace Corps teacher. Of course, there it wasn't called gardening. Growing your food was just another part of daily life. But I found it challenging and fascinating, even to the point of adding some flowers in front of my house.\n\n\"tholangmakhalachrysanthemums\"<\/a>\n\nWhere?\n\nThat was then. When I returned to live in Southern California, I realized that some\u00a0of what I had learned in Africa wasn't applicable here. Gardening is local, as they say. For example, in Lesotho you sowed almost all vegetables in the spring. It is a mountainous country with snow in the winter -- yes, snow in Africa. Yet in Southern California I eventually learned that though the best time to sow peppers may be in the spring, the best time to sow broccoli is in late summer, the best time to sow lettuce is in early fall, and the best time to plant potatoes is in late winter.\n\nSouthern California is not only unlike Lesotho, but unlike most of the rest of the United States, and\u00a0these characteristics of climate are only the beginning of what makes gardening here different\u00a0-- and what makes gardening here beg for its own sources of information.\n\nThe goal of The Yard Posts\n\nHence this blog. I certainly don't know it all yet, but here in The Yard Posts I do my best to share what I have learned in order to make your learning curve shorter. The goal of the blog is straightforward: to help people in Southern California grow food at home. To this end, I post about experiences in my own yard (\"yard posts\"), as well as hard facts and research that align with those experiences. I'm committed to never talking about what I don't know.\n\nBut it's not all science. We gardeners need inspiration, ideas, commiseration, philosophy. So I also post a photo of my son holding a giant purple sweet potato, or a photo of seven tomato hornworms picked off of a single tomato plant, or a deliberation on the pros and cons of investing in a tank to collect rainwater from your roof.\n\nWhy aim to help people grow food at home, by the way?\u00a0At home, you can grow cleaner and tastier fruits and vegetables than you can buy even from the organic aisle at the most expensive grocery store. Food gardens make for beautiful yards. There are a thousand more reasons, but I'm a father of\u00a0two young boys, and when I see them gorging on strawberries out there or asking if they can uproot one more carrot to eat, please, Dad -- I need no additional reasons\u00a0to know that it's a worthy cause.\n\n\"WP_20160322_16_11_33_Pro\"<\/a>","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-787","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nAbout - Greg Alder's Yard Posts: Southern California food gardening<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Who is Greg Alder? 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