The Desert Garden

Thank you for clarifying that for me! It makes co...

2010-03-22T20:47:09.718-07:00

Thank you for clarifying that for me! It makes complete sense and yet I never thought of it before.

Deo gratias indeed. Thanks for your poetic musing...

2009-09-11T22:12:37.455-07:00

Deo gratias indeed. Thanks for your poetic musings.

Your answers are always good. I appreciate having...

2009-08-28T07:35:24.632-07:00

Your answers are always good. I appreciate having you as a resource.

I am not familiar with the UK labels for Bt, but y...

2009-08-21T19:03:31.751-07:00

I am not familiar with the UK labels for Bt, but you should be able to find it at your local garden center, or perhaps at one of the mail-order houses. Bt is of course an abbreviation of Bacillus thuringiensis, so if you ask for that at the garden center they should be able to direct you. Good luck! And, remember: on many plants, picking the little beasts by hand works just fine.

Welcome back, Tyler! I am just now amending my ga...

2009-08-21T11:46:46.223-07:00

Welcome back, Tyler! I am just now amending my garden bed in preparation for fall planting, and find that having sifted out the big stuff, I have marvelous sandy loam! Exactly what I want. It's so beautiful, I can hardly keep my hands out of it! Basically, it is desert soil, that has been amended over 2 years with compost and mulch(both homemade and purchased.) Every year I dig down a

Mojitos!!!

2009-08-15T22:02:58.754-07:00

Mojitos!!!

Hi i just found a bunch of caterpillar from my cau...

2009-08-08T10:17:08.786-07:00

Hi i just found a bunch of caterpillar from my cauliflower :(
i want t obuy BT but i dont know where to buy it in UK. do they have different name here?

Great article. I live in Texas and over pruning i...

2009-06-24T14:45:46.722-07:00

Great article. I live in Texas and over pruning is a huge problem here. I have become more "in tune" with nature the past 3 years and have learned to respect plants more. It didn't come easy because my dad had over pruned many of our plants and most, in not all, of our direct neighbors have at least one major plant that has been over pruned.

I feel the same way

Thanks for sharing this recipe- I looked at so man...

2009-06-17T07:28:20.027-07:00

Thanks for sharing this recipe- I looked at so many and yours was by far the simplest AND it worked!! Thanks again.

I have a tiny yard in south coastal CA, and recent...

2009-06-07T17:16:19.110-07:00

I have a tiny yard in south coastal CA, and recently bought a small compost tumbler. I got rid of my gardener and am now putting all yard and kitchen (vegie/fruit) waste in it. I was getting the little flies, and in my search for answers, discovered your site. At least I know that the flies are "good" and not something that needs to be gotten rid of. I recently planted a new garden,

2009-05-25T09:26:44.192-07:00

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

Great idea for Vegetable and Composting Classes . ...

2009-05-17T23:28:00.000-07:00

Great idea for Vegetable and Composting Classes . Thanks, I think it'll help others.

Just a "me too" comment. I recently moved to Albu...

2009-05-16T14:15:00.000-07:00

Just a "me too" comment. I recently moved to Albuquerque from a lifetime in the San Francisco Bay Area and am having to relearn everything I ever knew about gardening in this very arid and hot climate.

Reading the detailed info in your blog archives is helping a great deal. Please keep up the excellent information source with your seasoned experience and good writing skills.
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Thanks for the pinching out tip. I'm new to desert...

2009-05-01T15:13:00.000-07:00

Thanks for the pinching out tip. I'm new to desert gardening so this hadn't even crossed my mind. Gardening in L.A. seems to be the opposite to my old veg garden in the UK. It should be an interesting challenge!

Applauding to you from New Mexico.

2009-04-25T09:48:00.000-07:00

Applauding to you from New Mexico.

Hi Tyler Love your blog! Thanks for the great tip...

2009-04-20T10:29:00.000-07:00

Hi Tyler

Love your blog! Thanks for the great tips.

I just bought a smal green thompson vine (about 5 inches tall). We are currently renting a house right now but maybe before Oct. this year we might be buying a house and moving. Can I buy a bigger pot for the vine and repot it for now and when we settle in a house then plant it in the ground?

Thanks!

Thanks for an informative post. I am still finding...

2009-04-15T08:13:00.000-07:00

Thanks for an informative post. I am still finding old landscape plastic under 2 to 4 inches of soil in spots in my yard that I never could have imagined. Any advice for removing the plastic with minimum damage to tree roots? We have many 50 foot plus trees that have feeder roots growing on top of the plastic. My strategy so far has been to remove fairly small areas at a time, say 3 feet by 3

Tyler.... I have a red and green Thompson vine hea...

2009-04-11T05:11:00.000-07:00

Tyler.... I have a red and green Thompson vine heading into year two. I did prune back to one vertical main stalk this past winter and the new branches are taking off in every which direction.

Your previous post with the thought of posting drawings or pictures of the pruning process would be most appreciated eventually. I'm a pilot by trade and us pilots... well... we love pictures..

Tyler... what about regular shredded copy paper? ...

2009-04-11T04:19:00.000-07:00

Tyler... what about regular shredded copy paper? You know... the kind that we all use in a printer at home... that ends up with financial or other private info on it... that we shred and then can't recycle?

Can we put that into the compost pile successfully?

Thanks Tyler...!

Tyler... I'm a bit confused. Every seed package I...

2009-04-11T04:01:00.000-07:00

Tyler... I'm a bit confused. Every seed package I find for watermelon or cantelope says to plant the seeds in "mounds". Of course, last year when I did this, it was difficult to keep the mound wet and the new plants struggled until I dug up the mounds and did precisely what you recommended here with the dug out areas.

Can you explain to me why all of the seed packages recommend the

Monica makes an excellent point, and one that I sh...

2009-03-27T20:24:00.000-07:00

Monica makes an excellent point, and one that I should have included in the original post: if you have edible citrus in excess of what you can eat or give to friends and neighbors, the best thing to do is to donate it to a local food bank. They will welcome your generosity.

Just a thought.... while compost is great, how abo...

2009-03-27T19:18:00.000-07:00

Just a thought.... while compost is great, how about harvesting the fruit while it is still good and taking it to the food bank? I'm picking my 800 or so grapefruit tomorrow and heading to St. MAry's food bank.

Love the blog....
Monica Stern

Hi, Tyler. I'm up early to get my kitchen compost...

2009-03-25T06:03:00.000-07:00

Hi, Tyler. I'm up early to get my kitchen compost into the pile before I go to work - it got ahead of me. In the Great Northwet we always used citrus peels on our acid loving plants like the azalea and the rhodies. I was amazed to read in your column today (I actually hadn't heard/been told) about not putting citrus on your compost pile. Amazed because I knew about the akaline quality of most

Thanks for the tips, I am glad to hear it, as I ha...

2009-03-24T23:06:00.000-07:00

Thanks for the tips, I am glad to hear it, as I have composted my excess oranges extensively this year.

I doubt you'll find garlic to be efficacious in th...

2009-03-20T21:06:00.000-07:00

I doubt you'll find garlic to be efficacious in this instance: I put a fair number of dead garlic cloves in the compost pile here at The Ranch this year, but they themselves turned out to be undead and consequently sprouted; I fished them out and planted them in the garden, where they're currently thriving.
I recommend chopping them more finely, and frequent turning.