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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! 

Preparing the contents of the pile.

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.

 

Article

Growing Tomatoes as Cordons

June 1st, 2022
In parts of the world where the growing season is short or there is a general lack of sunlight, tomatoes are often grown as cordons, which enables more of the available light to reach the fruit.
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Article

Black Widow Vendetta

June 1st, 2022
This year appears to have produced a bumper population of Black Widow (Latrodectus) spiders. Having had too many close calls with these arachnids, I decided to eliminate as many as possible before I became a victim.
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A tomato stem with wilted, discolored leaves.
Article

Late Spring Freezes in the Garden

May 23rd, 2022
By Dustin W Blakey
Recently the Eastern Sierra had some hard freezes that damaged plants. It's not that unusual for it to happen, but no one likes to see zapped foliage.
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Bindweed infecting a tomato crop.
Article

Field Bindweed - Take it Seriously!

May 9th, 2022
Although I'm familiar with bindweed from past experience, for some reason it had never put in an appearance in my West Bishop garden until three years ago.
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Wet soil with several small worms present.
Article

Tubular Invasion

April 15th, 2022
Blessed with good soil, I usually grow all of my vegetables in the ground, but this year I was tempted to create a raised bed for strawberries with space for some vegetables too.
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