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 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 What classifies a tree as “hardwood” as opposed to “softwood”? How do evergreen (trees that keep their leaves year-round) and deciduous (trees that lose their leaves in the fall, go into dormancy over the winter, and leaf out again in the spring) trees differ in their behavior […]
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 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 Linda Carloni Herbs serve us in wonderful ways – they can help with our health, make our food taste better, provide food for insects, and provide lovely scents and beautiful flowers. This post focuses on three commonly used and delicious perennial herbs for cooking. I grow these, and other […]
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 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 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 […]
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 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, 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 […]
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, May 12, 2022 by Ann Naffziger, Alameda Backyard Growers About 10 years ago, my next-door neighbor and I were commiserating that we didn’t have enough sunny space in our yards to grow as many tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant as we could eat. Privately, I was intensely jealous […]
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 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 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 […]
Alameda Sun – Wednesday, August 11, 2021 by Alison Limoges, Board member of Alameda Backyard Growers and Master Gardener When I was growing up in New York state, my brothers and I spent more than a few summer hours picking hundreds of hungry, non-native beetles off of our few fruit […]
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 […]
with Mano Tondre Owner and Designer, DIG Cooperative Tuesday, August 17, 2021 on Zoom Water conservation and water stewardship are vital now in our second year of severe drought. It is time to look for other sources of water to keep our gardens alive. Join us and learn about harvesting […]
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 […]
Part One Alameda Sun – Thursday, April 8, 2021 by Linda Carloni, ABG Board member and Master Gardener The birds of North America are disappearing. A 2019 study led by Cornell Lab of Ornithology found that since 1970, we’ve lost 2.9 billion breeding adult birds throughout North America, spread from […]
Virtual Meeting: Apr 20 @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm Sheet mulching is an easy and efficient technique for saving water, recycling resources, suppressing weeds and building healthy soil. Please join Lori Caldwell as she discusses the steps for this process as well as her own tips and tricks for […]
Alameda Sun, Thursday, December 10, 2020 by Marla Koss, ABG Board member When the first day of winter is not long off, gardeners in harsh-winter areas may get a guilt-free pass to ignore the yard in favor of the cozy indoors, but those who grow backyard vegetables and fruit in […]
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 […]
Understanding Systemic Insecticides and Their Potential Impacts in Urban Ecosystems Topic: Understanding Systemic Insecticides and Their Potential Impacts in Urban Ecosystems Date: July 21, 2020 at 7PM Speaker: Dr. Andrew Sutherland To attend, please sign up on Eventbrite Meeting description: Systemic insecticides, such as neonicotinoids, are commonly used to protect […]
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 […]
Our 1st Zoom Meeting Was a Great Success! Thank you to our presenters (bios below) who introduced the concept of permaculture, and how to apply permaculture principles into regenerative backyard design and local food production. We had a wonderful dialogue about these topics in the context of COVID-19 and the […]
Alameda Sun, Thursday, May 9, 2019 by Margie Siegal Since the growing season in Alameda is 365 days long, it is possible to grow something tasty during every season of the year. Although most Alamedans have small spaces in which to cultivate, practicing succession planting (replacing harvested crops with a […]
Tuesday, March 19, 2019, 7:00 – 8:30 pm Rhythmix Cultural Works, 2513 Blanding, Alameda Panel discussion with Birgitt Evans, Marla Koss and Damian Mason The term “Carbon Sequestration” is the turning up everywhere in the fight against global warming. It may sound intimidating or difficult, something to be done by […]
Yes, there is a farm in Alameda! Join us to learn about the farm and its CSA and lend a hand on a project improving the farm’s productivity. We’ll tour the farm for an hour, learning what it produces, how you can purchase its products, and its place at Alameda […]
Please join ABG for a very special event, the first of our “off site” summer season. Jasmine Tokuda, a very successful Alameda grower of fruit trees and vines, both common and rare, is opening her garden for the evening. Jasmine will describe and demonstrate her technique for propagating fig trees through […]
Monday, October 12, 2015 (6:30 – 7:30PM) Rhythmix Cultural Works, 2513 Blanding Ave, Alameda Damian Mason discussed Permaculture principles. To download a Word document of the presentation, click here. To download a PDF of the slide presentation, click here.
