by Marla Koss The best peach I ever tasted actually came from my own backyard. In Alameda. On a tree I had planted myself, not some consecrated tree grown by a wise old soul before we lived here. It was a Bonita peach, a yellow-fleshed freestone, one of the few […]
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 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 […]
Gardening in mid-summer frequently means pest management, as the warmer temperatures bring more insects and the summer veggies get maladies. Some tips for the season: While aphids attack some plants in spring, they can be a real problem on cole crops and other veggies in the summer. For help controlling […]
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 […]
by Linda Carloni, Master Gardener and ABG Board Member The winter rains brought us much needed water, leading to increased water availability for agriculture and cities, a bounteous wildflower bloom, and a start to recharging our depleted groundwater. It also brought us a very severe peach leaf curl season. Peach […]
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, Wednesday, February 8, 2023 by Linda Carloni, Alameda Backyard Growers Alameda’s front and back yards contain many citrus trees. Selected lemon and mandarin orange varieties are particularly common here. Citrus trees are easy to care for, but they can be prone to insect damage on the leaves from […]
by Margie Siegal I came back from a short trip and did a tour around the back yard. The Gala apple tree was drooping. I knew what it was – oak root fungus. I started soaking the tree with fungicide and clearing out the ground around the roots, but it […]
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 […]
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 Linda Carloni Tomatoes, peppers, green beans, zucchini – all well-known and glorious fruits of the summer garden. But while enjoying the bounty, it’s also time to give some thought to the fall and winter garden. Sometimes summer gardening takes all my garden energy and I take a break. But […]
Alameda Sun, Thursday, August 11, 2022 by Linda Carloni, Alameda Backyard Growers It’s a lovely warm summer day. The kale plants in the garden have looked lush and productive, ready for salads and sautés. The broccoli and chives have been doing well too. But suddenly — aphids! Aphids are small […]
An Interview with Tom Bressan, Founder of the Urban Farmer Store by Margie Siegal Setting up a drip irrigation system for your vegetable garden is an excellent DIY project. It takes a minimum of tools, information is available, the components are not very expensive and there is even an item […]
by Stefanie Leto Consider the lawn. If well-maintained, it requires a lot of water, weeding, and mowing. It’s also usually a monoculture. You can free yourself from the lawn, and enjoy fresh produce from the same area. My current house presented me with three lawn areas. More fun, more work, […]
by Margie Siegal Bermuda grass, whose Latin name is Cynodon dactylon, is native to Europe, Africa, Australia and much of Asia and is found both world wide and all over my yard. The blades are a grey-green color and one to six inches long. The grass blades grow on erect […]
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 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 […]
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 […]
On the one-year anniversary of our reality being impacted by the pandemic, we want to hear your stories. When shelter-in-place was ordered last March, many people turned to gardening for solace and hope. Did you start a garden for the first time since last March? Or, did you change […]
Alameda Sun, Thursday, February 11, 2021 by Marla Koss, ABG Board member As 2020 marked a resurgence in gardening, let 2021 be the year for upping one’s game. Now is an ideal time to think about what to plant in this year’s vegetable garden. First on the list: tomatoes! Spending […]
by Margie Siegal Root crops are not that exciting – no one I know ever gushes about heirloom rutabagas – but they have a lot going for them. While vine ripe tomatoes are only around for two to three months out of the year, in our climate, you can grow […]
by Birgitt Evans, ABG Board member and Master Gardener February is an important time in the Alameda gardening calendar. It is a time for pruning and weeding and making compost. It is a time for building soil, ordering seeds and planning the spring and summer garden. Work done now can […]
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 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 […]
by Birgitt Evans, ABG Board member and Master Gardener When my future husband and I rented a house in Alameda 30 years ago, I suddenly had more sunny land than I had ever imagined. And I went hog wild, planting every inch of it with dozens of tomato and cucumber […]
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 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 […]
by Fey Adelstein Like many people this spring, I was inspired to upgrade my garden. I started with the construction of raised beds 2ft in height (to alleviate my concerns about unknown soil conditions). The sides of the beds are framed, creating strength from which to anchor a trellis. Before […]
by Birgitt Evans, ABG Board member and Master Gardener July is an interesting time in the garden. Harvests have begun coming in and some crops are finished, leaving gaps, while the peppers and tomatoes are just beginning. After a busy spring of planting, gardeners tend to become lethargic, which can […]
by Birgitt Evans, ABG Board member and Master Gardener Ever since I started growing food at 13, I have been fascinated by the miracle of seeds. You can take a tiny round object, place it in the ground and a plant will emerge from that spot. And if it is […]
by Birgitt Evans, ABG Board member and Master Gardener It’s late May and most of the garden has been planted out. The next step is to keep everything alive and growing. There are two parts to this. First, it is important not to let other plants grow over everything and […]
by Birgitt Evans, ABG Board member and Master Gardener I have a friend who lives outside of Toronto. Like me, she grows and puts up a great deal of food from a smallish garden. She, however, has a two week window in which to plant her entire summer garden if […]
by Birgitt Evans, ABG Board member and Master Gardener What a wild ride March was! Lives were turned upside down. We traded security for uncertainty. While many people ran for toilet paper, the rest of us surveyed our options and decided that we preferred home food security. And then we […]
