Oh, and let’s not forget parsnips, rutabegas, radishes and onions if we’re going to discuss root vegetables. I’d add in salsify but I haven’t tried that yet. Potatoes and garlic aren’t started by seed so we’re going to ignore them for this post. My beef is with seed-started root veggies. It’s usually not recommended to…
Hoping to find scions for Arkansas Black Apples What’s a scion you ask? A scion (not the car company) is a plant shoot, bud or small branch that you graft onto rootstock of another plant. The California Rare Fruit Growers have an event every year during bareroot season where people can go and exchange…
Prior to 1900 there were over 8,000 varieties of apples. 8,000! That’s an amazing amount! But the vast majority of those varieties have become extinct and the others are quickly fading away. There appears to be only about 700 varieties left in private and public collections. Such a shame! Arkansas Black Apples I’m picky about…
That starchy tuber – the Potato. I love digging up potatoes. It’s like a treasure hunt. This weekend we extended our potato bed and planted a new set of seed potatoes. We are fortunate to have a mild winter, so while the plants may freeze, if we put enough straw over the bed, they will…
Living in California I definitely take Pomegranates for granted. We can grow them here and they are pretty common. Every nursery around here carries them. I’ve even used them in planting plans on model homes for developers. In the late spring and early summer the small, multi-branched tree becomes covered in these bright red flowers…
We got a question from Jen from Diet Plaid: I have a ton of mint, lavender, and rosemary in my garden. I’ve never done any of them so I’m not sure if I should dry them or freeze them or what before it gets too cold outside. Halp? ————————————————————– LAVENDER, MINT & ROSEMARY_MG_8874, originally uploaded…
Passion Fruit, originally uploaded by jazmyn. Not many people are aware that you don’t have to live in the tropics to grow passion fruit. There are hardy varieties, such as the Maypop Passion Flower, you can grow in Zone 5. In colder climates you can find varieties that adapt well to containers, such as the…
Flowering Medlar Small Medlar Fruitlets If you’ve looked at our list of what we’re growing there’s this strange name under our Fruit Tree heading – Monstruese de Evreinoff Medlar. If you’re in the U.S. chances are you have no idea what that is. I honestly don’t even know how I found out about it. The…
This year, to help save money for next year I’m planning on saving as much seed as I can. Seed is relatively cheap, but for as many packets as we go through it adds up quickly. Plus, when you save seed you can slowly develop a variety that will do really well for your region…
Dog Island Farm is a small urban farm in the San Francisco Bay Area.
