Gardening Blog Every Other Week or So

 My garden hasn’t had frost – either hard or light – for many years, but I still consider that there are two separate ranges of dates for sowing vegetable seeds of cool-season crops.  The critical date is January 31, which is the average last frost date for my garden.  I consider this to split our cool season into two pieces.  Seeds sown prior to that date will develop during progressively cold weather and therefore probably bolt or go to seed as the weather begins warming in the spring.  Seeds sown after that date will develop during progressively warm weather and continue to bear food until they bolt in the summer.  ​ ​ ​(To read more, click on "Blog.")

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This Month in the So Cal Garden 
See "Monthly Tips" for tasks and tips of what to do in Southern California gardens this month, and why this is the best time to do them.

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Major-Topic Blog Articles

Click on the article title and date it appeared.

FALL 

• Fall Bulb Planting for Spring Color - 8/21/21
• Holiday Decor From Your Garden - 11/19/19
• Cool-Season Plant Problems and Solutions - 3/14/21
• Collecting “Dry” Non-Hybrid Seeds for Sowing and Sharing - 8/25/19
• Repotting Shady Ferns and Begonias, and Sunny Succulents - 8/1/19
• Now’s the Perfect Time for Seeding and Transplanting - 10/9/18
• Collecting Seeds From Your Garden - 9/11/17
• Starting Lettuce and Other Seeds - 9/12/19

• Propagating Begonias From Cuttings - 10/29/16

WINTER

• ​Frost Threatens – How to Protect Our Gardens - 12/1/19
• Holiday Décor From Your Garden - 11/19/19

• Dormant Fruit and Rose Pruning During Hot Weather - 2/7/18

• ​Talking About Preparing for Frost During 85-Degree Weather - 12/12/17

• Pruning – Why and Where To Cut - 2/11/17
• Nipped By Frost? - 1/27/17

• Choosing Bareroot Roses, and Pruning Established Ones - 1/26/16​
• Dormant Pruning – Deciduous Fruit Trees, Cane Berries, Grapes - 1/19/16

SPRING

• Cool-Season Plant Problems and Solutions - 3/14/21
• ​Happy Spring!  Transplanting Tomatoes Technique - 3/21/20

• Starting Lettuce and Other Seeds - 9/12/19

• Ten Tomato Transplanting Tips – Also for Other Plants - 4/10/18

• Wildflower Wonders - 4/26/17
• Salvaging Lettuce and Greens When They Bolt (Go to Seed) - 3/18/17
• Planting Tomatoes - 3/7/17

• Harvesting Herbs For Fresh and Dry Use - 4/26/16
• Fruit Trees:  Don’t Thin Blossoms; Do Shorten Branches - 3/1/16
• ​Pruning Ornamentals and Their Resprouting Almost Immediately - 2/17/16

SUMMER

• Warm-Season Plant Problems and Solutions - 3/28/21

• Oh, Those Crummy Bugs! - 7/18/20
• Tomato Growing Problems & Solutions - 6/17/20

• Recuperating and Dealing With More Heat - 8/6/18
• ​How Deep Is “Watering Deeply”? - 7/21/18
• Yes, It Was Definitely Too Hot! - 7/11/18

• Saving Seeds From Non-Hybrid Vegetables - 8/3/16
• Summer Heat – Solarize Pesty Soil - 7/24/16
• Trimming and Rooting Blooming Plants - 7/13/16
• Amaryllis From Seed to Bloom - 7/4/16

• The Perfect Moment To Harvest - 8/24/15
• Why NOT to Prune Tomato Plants - 7/13/15

GENERAL

• Container Gardening - 10/11/21
• Home Composting - Garden Gold From Kitchen & Garden Waste - 11/11/20
• Repurposing Household Throwaways Into New Garden Tools - 8/16/20
• Are You A Beginning Gardener? - 5/2/20

TRAVEL

• Ruth Bancroft’s Cactus and Succulent Garden - 11/24/17
• Prince Charles’ Highgrove Organic Garden - 8/16/16

• Chelsea Flower Show – What We Can Grow, and Can’t - 6/19/16
• Renee’s Garden Seeds Growing Grounds - 11/30/15

• Luther Burbank, Master Breeder - 9/23/15

• Heirloom Expo Learning Delights - 9/15/15

  

Gardeners always recognize one another
because they know that 
​in the history of  each plant
​lies the growth of the whole world.
                              -- Paulo Coelho

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Welcome!
Yvonne Savio has been “playing” in home gardens, community gardens, and school gardens for some 60 years in both Southern and Northern California.  She retired in 2015 as Master Gardener Coordinator for the University of California Cooperative Extension in Los Angeles County, following 21 years developing the program and providing the information and photographs for the Master Gardener website.  From 1994 to 2015​, Yvonne taught 1,183 Master Gardeners who then helped 1.3 million Los Angeles County residents to garden more sustainably, with emphasis on encouraging limited-resource and underrepresented residents to grow more of their own food.  With this www.GardeningInLA.net website, she provides gardening resources for the greater Los Angeles County area and beyond.