Greg Alder's Yard Posts: Southern California food gardening

We revisit Earle here in mid-July to learn about how he successfully grafts mangos. If you want to grow mangos in Southern California, it is valuable to be able to graft your own because many varieties are not readily available to purchase as grafted trees. Here is how Earle does it: Take-aways from Earle on […] The post Earle’s mangos in Southern California, Part Two: Grafting appeared first on Greg Alder's Yard Posts: Southern California food gardening.

“I’m going to water the bananas.” My family knows that means I’m going to shower outside using the hose with a watering wand attached and hooked to an old bird feeder stand, placed next to some banana plants. It’s one of my favorite parts of summer. I like killing two birds with one stone: both […] The post Outdoor showers in the food garden appeared first on Greg Alder's Yard Posts: Southern California food gardening.

One recent visitor to my yard asked, “Why all the sunflowers?” “I didn’t plant them,” I said. “Not even one.” “You didn’t plant them?” “They’re all volunteers. I used to plant sunflowers, but lately, every year, they just pop up on their own all over. I think the birds spread them. I just try to […] The post Invasion of the sunflowers appeared first on Greg Alder's Yard Posts: Southern California food gardening.

The post Have you ever seen an avocado do this? appeared first on Greg Alder's Yard Posts: Southern California food gardening.

Have you ever sown vegetable seeds and then watered them only to see the seeds float up with the water? Here is a simple way that I avoid that. Rather than watering from the top, I water from the bottom and let the soil/compost/planting mix pull the water up. Here are some kale seeds I […] The post Watering vegetable seedling trays from the bottom appeared first on Greg Alder's Yard Posts: Southern California food gardening.

This post’s goal is to show in action, in real life, the application of the guidelines in the posts listed below. I know it looks harsh and you may think I’m sacrificing too much, but in my experience, this thinning pays off in the following years. This is me doing what I think is right […] The post Thinning avocados from young trees and grafts appeared first on Greg Alder's Yard Posts: Southern California food gardening.

Is Wurtz that bad of a name? Why can’t nurseries leave it alone? They’ll call the variety anything: Dwarf Avocado, Hybrid Dwarf Avocado, Little Cado. Anything except the original, real name: Wurtz. Wurtz variety history Roy Eugene Wurtz, a clerk in the Encinitas post office, grew the original tree on his property there in San […] The post The Wurtz avocado tree: a profile appeared first on Greg Alder's Yard Posts: Southern California food gardening.

Do they actually protect a tree’s roots from being munched by gophers? And once the tree is big, do gopher baskets not girdle the tree’s roots? Here are some avocado trees planted in a yard riddled with gophers that indicate the answers: I would still think of planting a fruit tree in a gopher basket […] The post Do gopher baskets work? appeared first on Greg Alder's Yard Posts: Southern California food gardening.

We don’t have to learn to grow mangos in Southern California from scratch because others have already been learning for decades. And some of these pioneers are generous enough to walk us through their trial and errors, to teach us what they’ve figured out about growing mangos here. Join me as I learn from Earle […] The post Earle’s Mangos in Southern California, Part One appeared first on Greg Alder's Yard Posts: Southern California food gardening.

May is usually an easy time of year for an avocado tree in Southern California. Therefore, signs of ill health now should be taken seriously and, if possible, remedied before the potential stress of heat or drought during summer arrives. In my yard this May I have some healthy and some not -so-healthy avocado trees. […] The post Signs your avocado tree is healthy . . . or not appeared first on Greg Alder's Yard Posts: Southern California food gardening.

If you’re in the neighborhood, join me and the San Diego chapter of the California Rare Fruit Growers to talk about and taste avocados on Wednesday, May 27. See here for location and details. My presentation aims to help you grow the world’s best avocados in your own yard. I will profile top varieties for […] The post Avocado talk and tasting at San Diego CRFG, Wednesday, May 27 appeared first on Greg Alder's Yard Posts: Southern California food gardening.

“Harvesting honey completes a circle in your yard,” said Jacques, as he was guiding me through the process of taking honey from my hive of bees which he had helped me install three years prior. He explained: You grow these plants that flower (strawberries, tomatillos, apricots, etc.). Bees visit the flowers to gather nectar and […] The post Harvesting first honey appeared first on Greg Alder's Yard Posts: Southern California food gardening.

1. How will you support your tomatoes this season? I use cages for some, and I use stakes and string for others. Check out this post: “Comparing tomato supports: cage vs. stake-and-string” 2. Your avocado tree has just finished flowering (unless it’s a Reed or another late bloomer). So you may be seeing small green […] The post Timely posts for May 8 appeared first on Greg Alder's Yard Posts: Southern California food gardening.

Feel free to call me an old man who refuses to use new technology, but when my tried-and-true Cinch trap works this well, can you blame me? Here is my post about trapping gophers and using the Cinch Trap. The post One-handed gopher trapping appeared first on Greg Alder's Yard Posts: Southern California food gardening.

It all started when I identified my neighbor’s citrus tree as rootstock. The fruit was unpleasantly sour and very seedy, nothing you would ever eat. The leaves were in groups of three. I looked at the base of the trunk and could see where the intended top of the tree had been overgrown by these […] The post Look, Mom. I made a citrus tree from scratch! appeared first on Greg Alder's Yard Posts: Southern California food gardening.

Rootstocks are mysterious. They do their work hidden, underground. Yet, their influence on the trees above ground is real and measurable. For example, some rootstocks have demonstrated that they can induce the tops to make more than twice as much fruit compared to other rootstocks. This was first shown back in the 1980s and 1990s […] The post Avocado rootstocks: What do they matter? appeared first on Greg Alder's Yard Posts: Southern California food gardening.

As I noticed the swollen white bulbs and the first green necks collapsing this week, I thought, Madalyn never lets me down. I think she’s my favorite. I should tell others about her. Background: Madalyn is an onion variety that comes from Enza Zaden, a vegetable breeding company based in the Netherlands. Madalyn seed is […] The post Madalyn onion variety: a profile appeared first on Greg Alder's Yard Posts: Southern California food gardening.

My goal with The Yard Posts 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 […] The post Supporting The Yard Posts appeared first on Greg Alder's Yard Posts: Southern California food gardening.

One day it got up to 101 degrees in our yard, and on another day we played at the beach and got sunburned and the ocean water felt like summer — in March. It was hot, but how unusual was that for March? And how did plants in the food garden respond? HOT I’ve been […] The post The Anomalous March of 2026 appeared first on Greg Alder's Yard Posts: Southern California food gardening.

“If I only had one citrus tree to live on for my entire life, this is it,” said our guide through the collection of about 1,000 varieties of citrus selected from around the world. That’s quite a claim. But, coming from Ottillia “Toots” Bier, we would be wise to consider it. She has tasted the […] The post The Gold Nugget mandarin tree: a profile appeared first on Greg Alder's Yard Posts: Southern California food gardening.

“Avocado trees are like Baby Bear,” says University of California farm advisor Ben Faber. As with Baby Bear’s porridge in the Goldilocks story, avocado trees need their environment neither too hot nor too cold. They need it just right. Well then, how do you keep them just right in a location like California’s Central Valley […] The post Growing an avocado grove under shade cloth in California’s Central Valley, with Tarcisio Ruiz appeared first on Greg Alder's Yard Posts: Southern California f...