The Real Dirt Blog

Growing Blueberries

If you've been wanting to grow your own blueberries, fall is a good time to plant a blueberry bush (or two, or three) in our climate. Many hybrid Southern highbush blueberry varieties have been...
Succulents: Make Your Own Plants!

Butte County has a Mediterranean climate where drought conditions occur naturally from May to October. A wide variety of succulent plants have become popular across the country in recent years, and...
Compost

Many backyard gardeners are familiar with composting, a process which recycles yard trimmings along with vegetable and fruit scraps from the kitchen. Compost, a humus-like soil, results from...
Garden Tools

People new to gardening often ask what tools are needed to maintain their gardens. It's easy to become overwhelmed by the scope and variety of garden tools available in stores, online, and in garden...
Daffodils from January to April

It is time to order spring-blooming bulbs from the many catalogs that may be turning up in our mailboxes. Daffodils are perhaps the easiest bulbs to depend upon for a colorful display that can...
Think Beyond the Thermometer and Start Fall Crops Now

Cool season plants like a warm start, so it's not too early to begin adding some of them to the vegetable garden now. In this way you can extend the harvest of both warm season crops and cool...
Master Gardener Fall 2023 Workshop Series

A new season of Master Gardener Workshops is about to start! The series begins with a two-parter designed to help us make the most of our summer produce: “Canning Fruits & Pickles: The...
High Summer in the Native Plant Garden

We Californians understand the concept of summer dormancy: “Those hills aren't brown, they're beautifully golden!” We know that the cycle of seasons plays out a bit more dramatically...
Pluots for the Home Orchard

A great choice for the home orchard is the Pluot, a plum-apricot hybrid. Pluots (pronounced plew-otts) are like plums in flavor and texture, but are sweeter and less acidic. Many pluot...
The Master Gardener Program: Its History, Local Projects, and How to Join

Are you interested in becoming a Master Gardener? The UC Master Gardeners of Butte County will begin training a new class in mid-January 2024. Graduates of the 17-week course will join...
Food Preservation

It's peak season for fruits and vegetables from now through September: peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, peaches, apricots, plums, berries … the list goes on and on. It's not unusual for a...
Leaf-sucking Whiteflies

Whiteflies are small, white-winged, low flying insects that flit erratically when disturbed. Ten species are common in California. Whiteflies feed on many crops, weeds, ornamentals,...
Landscaping with Berms

Landscaping berms are mounded hills of soil that can serve multiple functional and aesthetic purposes in the garden. A berm can be placed to block or change the flow of water across the property. It...
Ouch! It’s Puncturevine!

Puncturevine (Tribulus terrestris) is an attractive green plant with small yellow flowers commonly seen growing prostrate along the side of the road. A native to Southern Europe, it's also...
Yellow Starthistle

Summer has arrived and so has the dreaded, prickly presence of yellow starthistle, Centaurea solstitialis. Reports indicate that yellow starthistle infests between 10 and 15 million acres...
What Weeds Can Tell Us

Every gardener knows that weeds are just plants in the wrong place. Webster's dictionary defines a weed as “a plant that is not valued where it is growing and is usually of vigorous growth;...
Firewise: Fire Resistant Plants

The devastating Camp Fire of 2018, along with the numerous fires North State residents have experienced since then, have led many of us to focus on creating a defensible fire-resistant landscape...
Firewise Landscape Maintenance

Even when homeowners have created a defensible space, the job of protecting their home from fire is never done. There will always be ongoing and annual jobs to do. Additionally, there are...
Milkweed

Milkweed is a drought-tolerant and deer-resistant perennial plant named for its milky latex sap. It is a great host plant for many beneficial insects including Monarch butterflies, bees,...
Sterling City’s Clotilde Merlo Park

Nestled in the old mill town of Sterling City at an elevation of 3500 feet is Clotilde Merlo Park, a special place known by only a few. And many of those who do know about this place have never taken...