The Backyard Gardener

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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.

And 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.

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Starting New Garden Beds

March 30th, 2021

It's spring again! Time to start preparing your garden for planting. Read on for some tips to make this year's garden your most successful yet. The first step in planning a garden is to select a site and amend the soil. Pick a site with good drainage, full sun, access to water, and low traffic.

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Growing Sesame in 2020

March 22nd, 2021

As I was browsing through a seed catalog a couple of years ago, I found something I'd often eaten and enjoyed, but had never seen growing, sesame. Out of curiosity I ordered a packet of seeds. A little history and other information Sesame is one of the earliest oilseed plants to be cultivated.

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Double Digging

March 9th, 2021

By Dustin W Blakey

Our local video crew has created an excellent video on the process of double digging a garden bed. Double digging is essentially a process that breaks up a garden's subsoil. Our local soils that formed in a meadow often benefit from double digging.

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Yarrow: A Useful Ornamental Native Plant

March 4th, 2021

Yarrow is a plant that people have used for thousands of years. Indeed, Linnaeus, the father of plant taxonomy, gave yarrow the genus name Achillea after the great Greek warrior Achilles, who supposedly carried common yarrow with his army to treat battle wounds.

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Some tips on Growing Rhubarb.

February 18th, 2021

The herbal qualities of rhubarb (Rheum rhaponticum) have been treasured in China for thousands of years, its export to the outside world often being forbidden. The type which we now eat originated in Russia, and reached America by way of Europe in the 1770s.

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