The Backyard Gardener

A Gardening Blog for the East Side

The climate of the Eastern Sierra is very different from most of California and so gardening here is different, too!

In this blog we examine some of the quirks of gardening on the East Side, and cover horticultural issues that are important locally. Note that if you're visiting our site from the outside our little corner of California, you may find this information may not apply to your area.

Articles are written by local UC Master Gardener volunteers or the local Farm Advisor.

We also have a website!

The Inyo-Mono Master Gardeners also have a website with local gardening and soil information. Visit it to learn more about our program and gardening.

We are part of UC Cooperative Extension in Inyo and Mono counties.

A single tree with a white painted trunk.

Whitewashing Trees

February 3, 2022

By Dustin W Blakey

Earlier this week a friend posted on Twitter about temperatures at their place expected to go from 68F one day to 28F the next. Here in the Eastern Sierra we do that just about every day! Wide temperature swings can cause environmental injury to trees.

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Flower Color All Year Long (Yes, Even in the Owens Valley!)

January 27, 2022

I recently unearthed a bouquet of blue statice that I had hung to dry in the pantry, and it now brightens my bathroom, along with some Moonshine' yarrow and lavender harvested early last summer.

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Rethinking Raspberries

January 17, 2022

When we first moved to the Owens Valley 12 years ago we inherited a well-stocked garden, one feature of which was a border of raspberries. Sadly, I forgot to ask the previous homeowner which variety they were.

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A pile of seed catalogs and seed packets.

Seed Catalogs - A Useful Resource

January 3, 2022

Here they come! Gardening catalogs are appearing in our mailboxes fast, so rather than immediately tossing them into the recycling, why not take the time to open them and learn from them by studying the wealth of information that many of them contain?

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Many branches of a crape myrtle chopped back to 2 feet high and decorated with a garland.

Murder Mystery

November 30, 2021

By Dustin W Blakey

I was driving down south last week when I noticed some seriously butchered crape myrtles along 395 in a prominent location along the highway. I don't want to embarrass anyone so I've included pictures from outside the area of this common offense to plant physiology.

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