We have had a really weird year, weather-wise, and next year may be even weirder. Will we continue our drought, or will we have flooding? Maybe both.
Even with a wet year, we are still using more water than we have, and home owners are some of the major water users. We waste a tremendous amount of water through poor watering practices.
In the page “How to Install a Garden Irrigation System“, I show a very low-cost, efficient watering system.
Growing Blackberries in California
Of all the berries, blackberries are the best set for California, primarily due to their ability to stand our heat. Blackberries grow well in most soils, but prefer deep, well-drained alluvial soils, such as we have in most of Ventura County.
Blackberries require frequent watering so the soil stays uniformly moist. They do very well in coastal areas as the mild temperatures bring out the best tastes and prolong their maximum flavor.
Read the rest of this article here: Gardening Coaches – Growing Blackberries.
Growing Raspberries
Planting your own raspberries is a great way to enjoy this fruit at home. Raspberries are well adapted to California’s cool coastal climate.
When planting raspberries, remember that they require deep, well-drained soils and adequate moisture to produce good crops of berries.
Cultivars are divided into 4 groups by the fruits’ color – red, golden yellow, black or purple. The fruit is closely related to, and for the most part, cultivated like the blackberry, with some notable differences.
The fruit itself is different from the blackberry in that when the fruit is plucked from the plant, the stem stays on the plant and the fruit, or ‘druplets’ separate easily to form a cup-like fruit.
Read the rest of this article here: Gardening Coaches – Growing Raspberries.
The New Champion Of Local Food
If the local-food revolution is quietly under way, it has a surprising new booster — the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It’s behind the pilot program, which is part of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack’s push for small changes in the way food might be grown and distributed in the future.
“In the last five years, we saw 108,000 new farming operations get started with sales of less than $10,000,” Vilsack says. “These are very small farms, but they are a very important component of our agriculture.
“There is a real opportunity for us to grow those smaller operations to mid-income-sized operations, and the way to do that is by creating opportunities locally for local production to be consumed locally.”
To read the rest of the story, click here
…
Mike the Garden Coach's Weblog 