by Joyce Peters Cabbage is one of those overlooked nutrient powerhouses. The cabbage family, which includes arugula, bok choy, broccoli, cauliflower and kale, is rich in folate, vitamins C, E, and K, and fiber. All are good sources of phytonutrients that help lower inflammation and reduce the risk of cancer. […]
by Margie Siegal The bird in the photos is a California Towhee. This robin-sized bird is common in the San Francisco Bay Area. It eats just about anything, but what it really likes is the seedlings you just planted. One year I lost half of my tomato starters to this […]
by Birgitt Evans As we enter 2025, in the midst of a polycrisis, it is unclear if the price of groceries will go up or go down in the coming months. Facing uncertainty, it is easy to become overwhelmed. However, there are positive steps we can all take to help […]
By Marla Koss Every year ABG offers various tomato starts at its Spring Plant Sale. The past three years we’ve sold them at our booth at ARPD’s fabulous Spring Shindig out at Alameda Point (this year, held on Saturday April 19th – mark your calendars!). Since we have yet to […]
by Joyce Peters Roasting brings out the best in vegetables. High dry heat caramelizes the vegetables to give them sweetness and intensify flavor. This dish is a great company dish that can be prepared ahead by cutting all the vegetables except the potatoes. When you are ready to cook, add […]
With the rain beginning, both the calendar and a step outside indicate that autumn is here and winter is not far behind. Pest management strategies need to change with the season, so here are some seasonal tips on pest control in the colder, wetter months. Ants If ants can’t find […]
By Marla Koss – November, 2024 Remember when you first learned that the tomato was a fruit, not a vegetable and you were confused? Well, it’s even more confusing than that. It’s not just a fruit, botanists classify it as a berry. Which sounds almost as daft as my five-year-old […]
by Maricelle Cardenas, StopWaste In preparation for the big food gatherings coming up, we’ve asked StopWaste, the agency in Alameda County focused on reducing our county waste stream, to tell us about ways to minimize food waste over the winter holidays and throughout the year. The holidays often provide the […]
by Marla Koss We call fertilizer “plant food” because it’s the main energy source for plants. True / False Companion planting allows gardeners to cut back on the use of pesticides and fertilizers. True / False Tomatoes and other members of the nightshade family should never be planted near Black […]
by Joyce Peters An apple a day keeps the doctor away. Few other proverbs have stood the test of time. We’ve known that apples are a good source of vitamin C and fiber. They also contain pectin, a fiber that breaks down in your gut and makes you feel fuller […]
by Margie Siegal A friend was turning green over my productive tomato patch. We discussed what I might be doing right – and then I remembered that I had dug out my compost bin at the beginning of the year, sifted the contents and dumped a large portion of the […]
by Marla Koss Where in the Ancient World did these crops originate? (Marla Koss provides a pop quiz, in case you’re in want of a pleasant time-waster.) Match these 8 regions of the world A through H to crop groupings 1 through 8 below. Note: while researching, we found that […]
by Joyce Peters Tomatoes are a gardener’s treasure to enjoy in the summer heat when their flavor is at its peak. Besides being delicious and versatile in recipes they are a powerhouse of nutrients. A good source of vitamin C and vitamin A, tomatoes also provide fiber and other trace […]
ABG Free Seed Libraries, Seed Updates, and Seed Saving by Kristen Smeal What started out as a passion project for Birgitt Evans and Kristen Smeal continues to grow into something special for the Island of Alameda. Started in Spring of 2020, the Alameda Backyard Growers’ Free Seed Libraries consists of […]
Since ABG’s inception, Marla Koss has been a Board member and critical volunteer. She’s been incredibly valuable on many fronts, but is perhaps most visible as our fruit tree expert. Marla writes about fruit tree care for us regularly and is chief instructor for our fruit tree pruning workshops. Marla […]
by Linda Carloni We’re featuring tomatoes for June here at Alameda Backyard Growers. It’s a favorite summer garden plant all over, including in our Island City. To help keep your tomato seedlings successfully growing, check out these resources: Continuing care General tips for beginning vegetable gardeners Tomato tips for beginning […]
by Birgitt Evans What is odorless, colorless, tasteless – basically undetectable – and is present in every part of the vast majority of the ornamental plants that will be sold by California nurseries this summer? That’s right, it’s neonicotinoids, also known as “neonics”. Billed as a safer insecticide for vertebrates, […]
by Marla Koss June is here, and for certain fruit trees with overly abundant crops of fruit forming, so is ‘June Drop’. During this month apple, peach, nectarine, plum, apricot, persimmon and plum-apricot hybrids tend to drop excess fruit on the ground to relieve themselves of too much of a […]
by Amy Kalkstein Project Pick is off to a great start for 2024, despite another rainy winter making it challenging to schedule picks. With a great group of volunteers stepping up whenever there were breaks in the rain for last minute picks not only on weekends, but also mid-week, we […]
by Margie Siegal “Well, we all need someone we can lean on And if you want it, you can lean on me Yeah, we all need someone we can lean on And if you want it, you can lean on me” –The Rolling Stones, Let it Bleed Some of our […]
by Linda Carloni April is plant sale month! Specifically, pop-up sales of veggie seedlings for spring and summer harvest. ABG’s annual spring plant sale is Saturday, April 20, 2024 at Alameda’s Spring Shindig. Basics of planting those seedlings Prep your soil, be it in pots, in raised beds or the […]
by Marla Koss January 31, 2024 The Edible Schoolyard in North Berkeley is a magical place. Twenty-five years ago Alice Waters and friends broke ground next to Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School, intent on giving students hands-on experience in the wonders of growing food and being nourished by it. […]
by Margie Siegal People have grown fruit trees for thousands of years. In that time, careful farmers have developed techniques to help each tree be the best tree it can be. That means appropriate watering, control of bad bugs and plant diseases, adding fertilizer as appropriate, and – pruning. Pruning […]
by Linda Carloni February can seem like a pretty dismal month for the gardener. Sometimes (thank goodness) it rains a lot, and the ground is really soaked. Sometimes it’s very chilly. And always, the days are short, at least at the beginning of the month. But for the flexible gardener, […]
by Jillian Saxty, ABG Project Pick Coordinator I read an article in the SF Chronicle on Sunday, Dec. 24, 2023 and it struck a nerve. The title was ‘On the joy of feeding your fellow humans’ written by Bob Brody. It made me think of Alameda Backyard Grower’s Project Pick. […]
by Margie Siegal At the end of the summer, gardeners and farmers from many different cultures faced a similar problem: tomatoes that got started too late and never ripened. Gardeners and farmers around the world share two traits: first, they never throw anything away if they can help it and […]
by Margie Siegal We had a cold start to the year, and the fava beans were loving it, as were the radishes. The squash and tomatoes were cowering and shivering. By the middle of June, the favas and radishes were finally done, and I was going through my seed packets, […]
by Linda Carloni, Master Gardener and ABG Board Member As the summer vegetables finish, it’s time to think about your garden next season. Many gardeners plant cool season veggies in late summer or early fall and harvest in late fall, winter or even next spring. If you do replace your […]
On August 5, 2023, Marla Koss, one of ABG’s fruit tree pruning experts, demonstrated winter dormant and citrus pruning which also helped Farm2Market in Alameda at the same time. She discussed the best methods for keeping your stone fruit trees in good shape via summer pruning and other tree care […]
On July 22, 2023 ABG members and other participants attended a demonstration and talk on irrigation by two Alameda County Master Gardeners, who focused on saving water and still meet the needs of plants! For an information sheet on what was discussed at this demonstration click here. Our speakers provided […]
The UC Master Gardener Program of Alameda County’s New Volunteer Training Class Will Begin in October 2023 Classes are taught by University advisers, local horticultural educators, and certified Master Gardeners. Topics include horticulture basics, integrated pest management/problem diagnosis, and growing and caring for edible and landscape plants. Gardening experience is […]
by Margie Siegal We regular gardeners have experienced that a session out in the garden planting, harvesting, pruning, or even weeding gives us a mood lift, and it sure seems like all that digging and pulling is lots of exercise, and we may be right. There are now scientifically based […]
by Alison Limoges, Master Gardener and ABG Board Member Despite the fact that the Bay Area got ‘atmospheric river’ rains this winter and spring, in our typically Mediterranean climate we can still expect very dry summers, and of course, we know we will have dry winters in future years. California’s […]
Text and photos by Marla Koss, additional photo credits to Holly Johnson JANUARY: The holidays are over. Things are finally quiet for most. But Alameda Backyard Growers’ Spring Plant Sale organizers are just getting revved up. They have a mere three-and-a-half months to raise hundreds of tomato, vegetable, herb and […]
On May 17, 2023, Alameda Backyard Growers’ Birgitt Evans held a pollinator plant starting workshop. Participants learned how to start seeds and plant beautiful, butterfly and bee attractive plants, including California Natives, to create a Pollinator Paradise! Bees, butterflies and other pollinators have been struggling because there are not enough […]
by Linda Carloni The calendar says it’s spring, but with our continuing atmospheric river-fueled storms, it often still feels a lot like winter, a wet chilly winter. Nevertheless, there are tasks in the garden to tackle when you can seize a dry day. Remember to avoid working the soil when […]
Alameda Sun, Thursday, March 9, 2023 by Holly Johnson Tomatoes are nearly everyone’s favorite food to grow for themselves. Here are some tips for successful tomatoes in Alameda, collected from Alameda Backyard Growers’ resources, local gardening experts, and notes from a past presentation by Evan Krokowski, the former farm coordinator […]
Alameda Sun, Friday, September 16, 2022 by Holly Johnson Alameda Backyard Growers (ABG) held their August educational program on site at Farm2Market, the social enterprise farm division of Alameda Point Collaborative (APC). The session, part of the group’s monthly education series, gave three dozen attendees a hands-on learning experience as […]
Alameda Sun – Thursday, December 8, 2022 by Holly Johnson When Senate Bill 1383 (SB 1383), which requires homes and businesses to separate food waste from trash, became law on the first of this year, Alamedans might not have noticed. The city’s waste management system has included curbside food waste […]
by Marla Koss By the time this newsletter reaches your inbox, Alameda will have accumulated over 600 chill hours* since November 1. This means all the following deciduous fruit trees should have their dormant (winter) pruning done by the next week or two (or ideally, already have had it), depending […]
by Linda Carloni, Master Gardener and ABG Board Member The calendar is turned, and we’ve started turning the pages in our seed catalogs (or clicking online). January can be a busy month for the gardener. Two major tasks for food gardens are planning the spring and summer garden and selecting […]
by Birgitt Evans Master Gardener and ABG Board Member When we first moved to Alameda, we rented a house with a huge garden and I began my lifelong experiment with growing as much of our food as I possibly could. In those days, I was wildly experimental, growing six colors […]
We are sad to mark the passing of our friend Pat Potter. Alameda Backyard Growers first met Pat as the very first Project Tree recipient in late 2016, when we helped her plant a White Genoa fig tree in her yard. She was a big fan of milkweed and Monarch […]
A big shout out and thank you to Alameda Science and Technology Institute (ASTI) Garden Club students who organized picking apples from the orchard on their campus. They donated 100 lbs of delicious fruit that was delivered to the Alameda Food Bank. ABG appreciates the dedication of these students to […]
Outdoor learning ramped up in Alameda during the pandemic as a way to get students back to school sooner. In some of the older school buildings, adequate ventilation and physical distancing that met CDC standards was a cost prohibitive barrier to reopening. The pandemic forced schools and entire districts to […]
by Linda Carloni, Master Gardener and ABG Board Member Now that it’s autumn, gardening changes, but in our area it doesn’t end. Here’s a guide to resources from ABG and other excellent sources for some autumn gardening tasks: planting and cultivating fall and winter crops; improving your soil with cover […]
by Kristen Smeal, ABG Co President While traveling to visit family in Central Appalachia this Summer, I visited two sphagnum (peat) moss bogs; the Cranesville Swamp Preserve and Black Moshannon State Park. These two regions are similar in that they are at higher elevation in a basin-shaped landscape, which traps […]
by Paige Benviniste September 20, 2022 The organic food label means more than the absence of pesticides and herbicides. When you buy organic, you’re buying food grown by farmers that are required to maintain and improve soil health. Soil health is not only important for the environment, it’s important for […]
by Margie Siegal Mulch can be a lot of different things, from straw to high tech plastics, but basically, it is anything you put on top of the soil your plants are growing in to help them along. There are almost as many reasons to mulch as there are kinds […]
by Stefani Leto If you garden in the Bay Area, you are either familiar with powdery mildew, or you soon will be. The fungus is ubiquitous and there’s a spore variety for seemingly every plant. Powdery mildew is a catchall name for a group of airborne fungi that reproduce on […]
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