Food Gardens

Will your garden soil produce well? One of the best items to check is your soil pH or acidity. pH stands for the “potential of hydrogen” and is a scale that indicates whether your soil is acid or alkaline (basic). The pH scale runs from 0 to 14 with 7.0 being neutral. If your pH is below…

June bugs are among the most familiar insects of early summer. Although people commonly call them “bugs,” they are actually scarab beetles in the genus Phyllophaga. These beetles are usually brown, oval-shaped, and active at night, often flying clumsily around porch lights. Their larvae, known as white grubs…

As we get ready for this year’s vegetable garden planting season, I begin thinking about summer heat. Pretty much every year in late July, my family slides into a tomato depression thinking that all those beautiful green tomatoes will never get ripe. It depresses me to even think about it. However, this year…

The Basics of Growing Edible Crops in Tahoe  by Kristianne H., UC Master Gardener of the Lake Tahoe BasinOvercome ChallengesA Short Window: The average frost-free growing season is only about 93 days.The frost-free window typically runs from June 18 to September 19. This is unpredictable! Freezing…

It is time to start thinking about thinning the fruit on peach, nectarine, plum, pluot, apricot, apple, and pear trees. To produce fruit that is large and healthy, fruit trees need plenty of leaves to feed the developing fruit.  Since trees often set far more fruit than their leaves can adequately support,…

Below is a crop-by-crop summary of the best time to plant vegetables here in the Lake Tahoe Basin.  Keep in mind these are estimates of ideal planting windows, each season can bring very different conditions so also take into account potential freezes in the weather forecast and your individual planting…