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 […]
Alameda Sun – Thursday, July 14, 2022 by Jillian Saxty, Co-President of Alameda Backyard Growers Community organizations in other cities now have a handy tool for setting up their own food recovery or gleaning groups thanks to the new booklet produced by StopWaste and Alameda Backyard Growers (ABG). The publication, […]
Alameda Sun – Thursday, March 10, 2022 Alameda Backyard Growers (ABG) invited a youth at Farm2Market to share their perspective on gardening. Oliver Stouffer, a 17-year-old senior at Encinal High School, accepted their offer. My name is Oliver Stouffer. I am 17 years old and a Senior at Encinal High […]
by Birgitt Evans, ABG Volunteer Coordinator Last year was a watershed year for ABG with more than 7,000 pounds of gleaned fruit donated to the Alameda Food Bank, an expanded Plant Sale, packed Zoom classes, information packed e-Newsletters and our second annual Plant Swap. In addition, we added five new […]
by Kristen Smeal, ABG Board Member These books were handpicked by five-year-old Rosemary, a lover of books and gardening. Muncha, Muncha, Muncha by Candace Fleming Young children will engage with this book, repeating the onomatopoeic phrases of hungry rabbits finding their way into Mr. McGreely’s garden. With the turn of […]
by Linda Carloni, Master Gardener and ABG Board Member For me the very best reason to plant asparagus is because it’s delicious. It also grows well here by the Bay, thriving in cool, humid summers. Asparagus is a perennial plant, so you plant it one year and with luck it […]
by Birgitt Evans, Master Gardener and ABG Board Member It’s the most wonderful time of the year! No, not the holidays, silly. Seed season. All your seed catalogs have arrived, the nurseries are chock-full of seeds and it’s time to get out some Post-its and start making your choices. This […]
Alameda Sun – Thursday, January 13 2022 by Linda Carloni, Board member of Alameda Backyard Growers and Master Gardener Fruit trees can be planted in fall, winter, or spring, but only in winter are bare root trees available. Back in the day, bare root fruit trees were the only way […]
Alameda Sun – Thursday, October 14, 2021 by Ron Limoges, President of the ABG Board of Directors Happy Autumn!! Alameda Backyard Growers (ABG) quietly moved into our 10th year of service last Spring, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead of celebrating, we continued to search out new ways […]
by Jeff Bridge, answering questions from ABG Board Member, Marla Koss Alameda Backyard Growers and so many of us as individuals have grown to love and depend on Ploughshares Nursery and its stalwart manager Jeff Bridge. In early October Jeff left Ploughshares to join a wholesale nursery in Petaluma. At […]
by Linda Carloni, ABG Board Member Many experts recommend that broccoli and bok choy (as well as other cruciferous vegetables) be planted in the inner East Bay in February/March or from July through September. But I plant mine from seedlings in October. Planting in October risks slow growth if the […]
by Margie Siegal So there you are, poking through the seed racks at Ploughshares Nursery or Encinal Nursery, and trying to figure out what variety to buy, or scrolling around all the different seed companies on-line, reading through the descriptions and trying to figure out what variety to buy. Once […]
Almanac Beer Co. is now brewing the fresh new Bay of Plenty Hazy IPA in support of Alameda Backyard Growers, together with Alameda Food Bank and Alameda Point Collaborative, all nonprofits that nourish our community through education, sharing, and volunteering. This beer is dry-hopped exclusively with Moutere, creating an intensely […]
by Marla Koss, ABG Board member If the best part about having a fruit tree in your yard is enjoying the fruit itself, then the satisfaction of watching it thrive year after year has got to be a close second. Whether you have just one — or a half-dozen — […]
by Birgitt Evans, Master Gardener and ABG Board Member Last year I took a class from Master Gardener Guy Duran and finally perfected my onion growing technique. This year I grew big, fat onions, some weighing in at 15 ounces! Onions are biennial, producing bulbs in their first year to […]
by Linda Carloni, Master Gardener and ABG Board Member Plants that are native to California are becoming more and more popular, both as part of an established garden or as a replacement for a lawn. There are lots of good reasons for the increasing interest in native plants. Why Plant […]
by Birgitt Evans, Master Gardener and ABG Board Member Trees are the largest living organisms in the landscape and the most important. Trees take carbon out of the atmosphere and store it in their roots and tissues, they cool the ground and reduce the heat island effect, they slow, sink […]
by Margie Siegal One of the (few) positive side effects of the current pandemic is a renewed interest in self sufficiency. One way to become more self-sufficient is to learn to preserve food. By preserving, you take food that is easily available in large quantities for short periods (for example, […]
by Marla Koss, ABG Board Member Inspiring? Check. Comprehensive? Check. Full of handy local resources? Check check check. That’s the alamedabackyardgrowers.org website, reflecting the passions and values of its volunteers. ABG’s website helps fulfill the original aim of founders Amanda MacLean Bruemmer and Janice Edwards for their fledgling non-profit to […]
by Linda Carloni, Master Gardener and ABG Board Member Your full-size tomatoes have started to ripen. Your cherry tomatoes may be ready to eat now. Nothing tastes like a tomato from the garden! But while tomatoes are one of the most popular foods to grow in your garden, they are […]
Are you interested in gardening but don’t have the space, or would like a garden but don’t want to do the upkeep? Shared Earth is a website on which, whether you are a homeowner or a gardener, you can post your address, contact information, and details. You can note if, […]
by Margie Siegal Here it is, not even the Fourth of July. Isn’t it a mite early to be planning the fall and winter garden? Actually not. As the sun dips and the air chills, plants grow much more slowly. The trick to growing many vegetables for a winter harvest […]
by Marla Koss, Alameda Backyard Growers Board member After gardening in the same backyard for years, I thought I’d seen everything I was ever going to see. I’ve had peanut plants come up in my garden thanks to a squirrel; I’ve been visited by the most beautiful bee – a […]
Alameda Sun – Wednesday, June 9, 2021 by Birgitt Evans, Board member of Alameda Backyard Growers and Master Gardener It’s June now and the garden is planted and beginning to take off. Also taking off are those organisms people identify as “pests.” Contrary to most articles, this one is not […]
May 25, 1965 to March 6, 2021 Gone way too soon. We will miss your love of, and amazing skills at, gardening and baking, your generosity to ABG and your delightful enthusiasm for skateboarding and parades. Rest in peace, dear friend.
by Birgitt Evans, ABG Board member and Master Gardener You may not realize that California is in the second year of a fairly severe drought, well, because no one is talking about it. As of this writing, we have received 7.6 inches of rain, a fraction of the 20 inches […]
by Margie Siegal If you travel on Interstate 5 through the Central Valley, you will see signs along the highway “IS GROWING FOOD WASTING WATER?” The answer is – it can be! If a farmer does not make the best use of the water that is available, the farmer is […]
Alameda Sun – Tuesday, March 2, 2021 by Kristen Smeal, ABG Board member When Girl Scout Leader Jill Proffitt learned of the Alameda Backyard Growers (ABG) Free Seed Library, she saw an opportunity for the Girl Scouts to help. Girl Scout Troop #33373 of Alameda, which includes eighth-graders Jennifer Proffitt, […]
by Karin K. Jensen on News Break According to Cindy Houts, Executive Director of the Alameda Food Bank (AFB), hunger was already a growing problem in our relatively prosperous community before the pandemic hit. Once Covid-19 arrived, the need multiplied. AFB reports that they are serving ten times the number […]
Girl Scout Troop 33373 of Alameda and Alameda Backyard Growers teamed up to place two new ABG Free Seed Libraries in Alameda. The Girl Scouts have finished building, painting, and installing the two boxes for gracious homeowners in the West End of Alameda and on Bay Farm Island. Project advisor […]
by Margie Siegal The holidays are over, but the pandemic is still here. It’s cold and wet outside. There’s no place to go. A depressing prospect… but if you buy mail order seeds, you are not sad and depressed. You are eagerly awaiting the year’s delivery of SEED CATALOGS. Seed […]
by Linda Carloni, ABG Board member and Master Gardener Fruit trees are a valuable part of the food garden, and many fruit trees grow well in Alameda. Fruit trees can be planted in fall, winter or spring (summer is tricky because new trees need to be kept well-watered the first […]
by Alison Limoges, ABG Board member and Master Gardener Your beloved tree is too tall, too dense, too wide, or too misshapen so you want/need to prune it. Here are some basic dos, don’ts and rules to follow when pruning your tree or shrub. First and foremost, wait until the […]
Alameda Sun – Thursday, December 10, 2020 by Cindy Houts, Executive Director of the Alameda Food Bank It’s become fashionable to deride 2020 as “annus horribilis” but I prefer to see it as a near biblical test of Alameda’s resolve and resiliency to which we have responded admirably. In my […]
by Margie Siegal Our relationship with fruit trees is mutually beneficial. When we take better care of fruit trees… we benefit, and the trees benefit too, not just as individual trees, but collectively, our interest, attention and garden space create havens for more fruit trees and for varieties that might […]
by Linda Carloni, ABG Board member and Master Gardener Cover cropping may sound like an advanced practice, but it can be pretty simple and it’s really good for your soil and for the environment. Cover cropping for food gardeners is planting a non-food crop, generally legumes and cereals, and allowing […]
by Birgitt Evans, ABG Board member and Master Gardener It’s November and the daylight is waning. When we hit December and January, plant growth will slow dramatically as the daylight hours dip below 10. Plants need 10 hours of daylight to continue growing and on December 21st, we get about […]
Alameda Sun, Thursday, October 8, 2020 by Alison Limoges, ABG Board member and Master Gardener It’s officially autumn now and while some people persist in blowing away the falling leaves, it’s so much healthier to use, not remove, them. In addition to the annoying and unhealthy noise, dust, and air […]
by Birgitt Evans By now you have heard about our Free Seed Library and possibly availed yourself of some of the more than 1,100 packets of seeds that we have distributed. Now that you have seeds though, what do you do with them? You have two choices. You can plant […]
by Linda Carloni You have seeds from our Free Seed Library, the nursery, a catalog or a website. Now it’s time to plant seeds for your fall and winter garden. Birgitt Evans (article author and star of our seed planting video) and Kristen Smeal (videographer) cover planting seeds in containers […]
by Birgitt Evans, Master Gardener It’s dry out there in the garden now. And hot. The heat lovers like tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, basil, corn and melons are loving it. As long as they get enough water, they will shine, producing generous crops. This time of bounty is an opportunity to […]
Review by Margie Siegal It’s canning day, so I get up early in the morning to avoid the midday heat. I have cleaned the kitchen the night before. I get the produce I have picked and start processing it. Jars get washed in hot soapy water and then boiled. I […]
by Linda Carloni Harvesting and planting may be more glamorous, but pest management is just as crucial to your garden, be it summer or fall. Ideas for managing some issues your garden may be experiencing now: Tomatoes – hornworms One of the most frustrating tomato pests is the hornworm. The […]
by Sarah Miller, Master Gardener The process of worm composting (or vermiculture) can be a mutually beneficial undertaking. Your child learns about worm biology, decomposition and waste reduction, and the worms create black gold for your garden, also known as worm castings or worm poop. To get started you’ll need […]
