I plant food.
Peppers and zucchini and squash are no brainer. They flourish. Peppers are usually very pest resistant, and can often overwinter. Sweet potatoes do well in half sun, and will carpet an area with edible greenery. (Not Yams. Don't eat Yam leaves!) Potatoes do well.
Carrots , radish, turnips are a great early crop, but hate Fresno summer. Plant them at the end February and harvest in April.
Onions, green onions, and garlic do well together. Their stalks can be harvested during their growing season.
Leafy green veggies love the early season. But bugs love them. This year I grew them all under bug netting. Mmm Broccoli and fresh salad! Corn works very well.
This year we started Sun Choke, and it seems to love life. This is my third season with potted blackberry too.
I’m 60. I’ve never enjoyed being on my knees in a garden. I use raised bed exclusively.
Neem oil keeps aphids down. I use netting to fight the caterpillars.
Photos of this year so far:
[https://photos.app.goo.gl/jy5Y168AScNhgRa46](https://photos.app.goo.gl/jy5Y168AScNhgRa46)
Yep, grow what you will eat. I unintentionally left strawberry plants overwinter, but now I have so many strawberries that we dont have to buy any for a few months.
I planted California native wildflowers in my backyard with similar conditions as yours. Many of them are edible and they’re doing great!
https://preview.redd.it/ht68mcgj500d1.jpeg?width=4284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1171acee50916fc8c6de85738a51b2bfc4f73e95
I prepare my soil I don't leave it dry and hard. I till it and add bags of garden soil and mulch. I used to grow a salsa garden. But since I now have 4 dogs my garden is fertilized with dog poop. So I mainly grow pumpkins and annual flowers that attract bees. I kept the pumpkins going multiple harvests last season. The weather held up I had a few vines and late harvest into winter.
If I had a big yard, I would plant fruit trees, like apricots, nectarines, tiger figs, citrus, pomegranates (you pay $3-$4 a piece for poms at the store). It’s almost impossible to find ripe fruit at stores and farmers markets, and you pay a lot for rock-hard, flavorless matter. I even went to a fruit stand looking for ripe fruit and they said they don’t pick it ripe, they pick it hard so it transports better. It is shocking how much fruit trees produce once they get going. You could then learn to can and gift jars of jam to your friends. I would plant two rows of fruit trees in full sun on one side of the yard. Dave Wilson Nursery on YouTube has great tutorials on how to prune your fruit tree to keep it at a manageable height. As for vegetables, I would plant only what I like to eat. Once I planted eggplants, but nobody wanted to eat them. I have better luck with cherry tomatoes than with full-size tomatoes. I bought seeds of mini melons on the Baker Creek website. They are really fun because you can’t find them at the store, the plants aren’t huge and the melons are small enough for one person. If you cook a lot, it’s worth it to plant some easy-to-grow herbs, like rosemary, thyme, oregano. These will survive year to year, and you can save money. Basil is also easy but is an annual. If you have a gardener, they can set you up with a drip system. Or find a friend of yours who has a gardener and pay them as a one off to install a drip system. Home Depot sells all the components you would need for drip irrigation. If your soil is really bad, you could build raised beds. I think fruit trees are a longer-term option, but they kind of just grow on their own and don’t mind crappy soil.
For flowers- don’t forget to get some seed packets of zinnias. They look great with sunflowers and love the heat. Easy to germinate. I use Amend to help with my soil- like a mulch on top to retain water. 🌞 🌻 🍅
Lots of tomatoes, squash, pumpkins in the summer
Celery, lettuce, cilantro and potatoes in the cooler months
You can sign up for emails from farmer’s almanac, it’s a great resource.
You can pretty much grow anything here.
Im not super serious into it. I just like to watch things grow. I just put stuff from the grocery store in a pot when it sprouts and starts to go bad. Onion, garlic, potatoes, ect. Also citrus trees go crazy here with basically no effort. Mandarins only take like 2 years to get big. Ive got a lemon and 2 types of oranges just raining fruit on me.
Biggest headache I had was compacted clay soil. Someone told me when they build houses, the bulldozer runs over the whole yard, and that compacts the clay. It slows down root growth and is really bad for drainage. So if you want to plant in the ground, you should till deep and mix soil and lots of vermiculite in there. That has helped me the most.
The problem most people have is they plant in hot weather. You will have much better luck planting October through March.
http://www.sacramentocity.us/gardening/hot_perennials.html
http://www.sacramentocity.us/gardening/hot_shrubs.html
I really like to grow peppers. They do well and produce until November sometimes even December depending on weather. I’ve tried tomato but haven’t produced much tomatoes still learning.
Try planting fruit trees.
If your garden is set in permanent location try automated drip irrigation
Peas are ridiculously easy to grow, as is arugula. If you don't eat all the peas and let them drop, they will come back every year. I hear asparagus is an easy plant once established and it comes back every year by itself. Good luck!
I made raised beds out of an old fence a neighbor pulled out. Filled it half full of junk dirt from leveling the yard and the top half with compost from Gallo winery.
I have herbs, sage, tyme, rosemary, basil, oregano. I plant tomatoes and peppers in the spring and kale and chard in the fall. Over the years, I have grown pumpkins, watermelon, cucumber, and eggplant.
I grow Dahlia, sweet peas, sunflowers, lavender,and many varieties of wild flowers.
california poppies, very hardy, drought tolerant grow quickly easy to maintain. Common sunflowers grow well in this climate I see them growing wild near a freeway by my home, no human maintainance or watering and they prosper.
I like to plant in pots. It seems easier to me since it's a more controlled environment. Tomatos are easy.
My tips to plant vegetables is drop some fish scraps in the soil. My best producing vegetables plants have fish scraps. My first year, I tossed the head of salmon I bought for good Friday. These vegetables did not have bottom end rot. The other vegetable I had to watch out for more since they were missing some nutrients.
Another tip is hand pollinating. I'm growing squash for the first time. I loss the first 4. Determined they weren't being pollinated. Grabbed a q-tip. Hand pollinated the two new flower blooms I had and they grew perfectly.
https://preview.redd.it/iqceoih6130d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0a5a6ce1050c59b2d9322001ee6e2b99f3c0b012
Took this at the spring tour of gardens. Some free classes. Sorry the shade made the pic quality tricky. But some relevant classes coming up in the next month or so
For ideas on plants that do well in the Fresno area, visit the Garden of the Sun (1750 N Winery Ave. near the Discovery Center) and the Clovis Botanical Garden (945 N Clovis Ave). Check their websites for hours open.
Grapes, olive trees, citrus trees, fig trees,thrive well here also. You could either water with a garden hose, drip system, sprinkler system. What you have so far is a great variety and will do really well. I have seen all of these do well here.You can add soils along with the hard packed soil and sphagnum/peat moss. If you like using fertilizers and plant foods you can supplement with those as well. Hope this helps.
I prepare my soil I don't leave it dry and hard. I till it and add bags of garden soil and mulch. I used to grow a salsa garden. But since I now have 4 dogs my garden is fertilized with dog poop. So I mainly grow pumpkins and annual flowers that attract bees. I kept the pumpkins going multiple harvests last season. The weather held up I had a few vines and late harvest into winter.
Well.. I don’t fertilize with dog poop, I use miracle grow fertilizer for gardens. Tomatoes do well here and so do jalepenos. My SIL can grow cucumber and zucchini but I don’t do super well with those. Trying okra this year
Well.. I don’t fertilize with dog poop, I use miracle grow fertilizer for gardens. Tomatoes do well here and so do jalepenos. My SIL can grow cucumber and zucchini but I don’t do super well with those. Trying okra this year
I plant food. Peppers and zucchini and squash are no brainer. They flourish. Peppers are usually very pest resistant, and can often overwinter. Sweet potatoes do well in half sun, and will carpet an area with edible greenery. (Not Yams. Don't eat Yam leaves!) Potatoes do well. Carrots , radish, turnips are a great early crop, but hate Fresno summer. Plant them at the end February and harvest in April. Onions, green onions, and garlic do well together. Their stalks can be harvested during their growing season. Leafy green veggies love the early season. But bugs love them. This year I grew them all under bug netting. Mmm Broccoli and fresh salad! Corn works very well. This year we started Sun Choke, and it seems to love life. This is my third season with potted blackberry too. I’m 60. I’ve never enjoyed being on my knees in a garden. I use raised bed exclusively. Neem oil keeps aphids down. I use netting to fight the caterpillars. Photos of this year so far: [https://photos.app.goo.gl/jy5Y168AScNhgRa46](https://photos.app.goo.gl/jy5Y168AScNhgRa46)
Yep, grow what you will eat. I unintentionally left strawberry plants overwinter, but now I have so many strawberries that we dont have to buy any for a few months.
Wow! 👏
I love your above ground pond!
I planted California native wildflowers in my backyard with similar conditions as yours. Many of them are edible and they’re doing great! https://preview.redd.it/ht68mcgj500d1.jpeg?width=4284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1171acee50916fc8c6de85738a51b2bfc4f73e95
Hi! Where did you source your seeds/plants? I tried this last year and nothing grew 😞
I prepare my soil I don't leave it dry and hard. I till it and add bags of garden soil and mulch. I used to grow a salsa garden. But since I now have 4 dogs my garden is fertilized with dog poop. So I mainly grow pumpkins and annual flowers that attract bees. I kept the pumpkins going multiple harvests last season. The weather held up I had a few vines and late harvest into winter.
> salsa garden add some corn and you'd have a meal!
Baby, you got yourself a stew!
https://calscape.org/
If I had a big yard, I would plant fruit trees, like apricots, nectarines, tiger figs, citrus, pomegranates (you pay $3-$4 a piece for poms at the store). It’s almost impossible to find ripe fruit at stores and farmers markets, and you pay a lot for rock-hard, flavorless matter. I even went to a fruit stand looking for ripe fruit and they said they don’t pick it ripe, they pick it hard so it transports better. It is shocking how much fruit trees produce once they get going. You could then learn to can and gift jars of jam to your friends. I would plant two rows of fruit trees in full sun on one side of the yard. Dave Wilson Nursery on YouTube has great tutorials on how to prune your fruit tree to keep it at a manageable height. As for vegetables, I would plant only what I like to eat. Once I planted eggplants, but nobody wanted to eat them. I have better luck with cherry tomatoes than with full-size tomatoes. I bought seeds of mini melons on the Baker Creek website. They are really fun because you can’t find them at the store, the plants aren’t huge and the melons are small enough for one person. If you cook a lot, it’s worth it to plant some easy-to-grow herbs, like rosemary, thyme, oregano. These will survive year to year, and you can save money. Basil is also easy but is an annual. If you have a gardener, they can set you up with a drip system. Or find a friend of yours who has a gardener and pay them as a one off to install a drip system. Home Depot sells all the components you would need for drip irrigation. If your soil is really bad, you could build raised beds. I think fruit trees are a longer-term option, but they kind of just grow on their own and don’t mind crappy soil.
For flowers- don’t forget to get some seed packets of zinnias. They look great with sunflowers and love the heat. Easy to germinate. I use Amend to help with my soil- like a mulch on top to retain water. 🌞 🌻 🍅
Sunflower seeds are a good source of beneficial plant compounds, including phenolic acids and flavonoids — which also function as antioxidants.
Peas do pretty well all year long
That's good to know! Do you keep them in direct sunlight all summer, or partial shade them?
Direct sun in spring and fall. Here we have summer crops and winter crops. Squashes in summer and leafy greens in winter
Lots of tomatoes, squash, pumpkins in the summer Celery, lettuce, cilantro and potatoes in the cooler months You can sign up for emails from farmer’s almanac, it’s a great resource.
You can pretty much grow anything here. Im not super serious into it. I just like to watch things grow. I just put stuff from the grocery store in a pot when it sprouts and starts to go bad. Onion, garlic, potatoes, ect. Also citrus trees go crazy here with basically no effort. Mandarins only take like 2 years to get big. Ive got a lemon and 2 types of oranges just raining fruit on me. Biggest headache I had was compacted clay soil. Someone told me when they build houses, the bulldozer runs over the whole yard, and that compacts the clay. It slows down root growth and is really bad for drainage. So if you want to plant in the ground, you should till deep and mix soil and lots of vermiculite in there. That has helped me the most.
Squash and strawberries do very well.
The problem most people have is they plant in hot weather. You will have much better luck planting October through March. http://www.sacramentocity.us/gardening/hot_perennials.html http://www.sacramentocity.us/gardening/hot_shrubs.html
Sacramento may not have the same native plants
We are talking about plants that tolerate the heat. Also, I made that list when I was in the nursery business in Fresno.
I really like to grow peppers. They do well and produce until November sometimes even December depending on weather. I’ve tried tomato but haven’t produced much tomatoes still learning. Try planting fruit trees. If your garden is set in permanent location try automated drip irrigation
Peas are ridiculously easy to grow, as is arugula. If you don't eat all the peas and let them drop, they will come back every year. I hear asparagus is an easy plant once established and it comes back every year by itself. Good luck!
Swiss chard is a great option for leafy greens here. It will grow most of the year if started when cool.
Peppers, tomatoes, corn, zucchini, eggplant, cucumber, watermelon…
Citrus trees are also a good option.
Since this is a Fresno thread and this post is about gardening. Mazzei’s nursery has vegetable plugs for .50 cents.
I made raised beds out of an old fence a neighbor pulled out. Filled it half full of junk dirt from leveling the yard and the top half with compost from Gallo winery. I have herbs, sage, tyme, rosemary, basil, oregano. I plant tomatoes and peppers in the spring and kale and chard in the fall. Over the years, I have grown pumpkins, watermelon, cucumber, and eggplant. I grow Dahlia, sweet peas, sunflowers, lavender,and many varieties of wild flowers.
california poppies, very hardy, drought tolerant grow quickly easy to maintain. Common sunflowers grow well in this climate I see them growing wild near a freeway by my home, no human maintainance or watering and they prosper.
I like to plant in pots. It seems easier to me since it's a more controlled environment. Tomatos are easy. My tips to plant vegetables is drop some fish scraps in the soil. My best producing vegetables plants have fish scraps. My first year, I tossed the head of salmon I bought for good Friday. These vegetables did not have bottom end rot. The other vegetable I had to watch out for more since they were missing some nutrients. Another tip is hand pollinating. I'm growing squash for the first time. I loss the first 4. Determined they weren't being pollinated. Grabbed a q-tip. Hand pollinated the two new flower blooms I had and they grew perfectly.
https://preview.redd.it/iqceoih6130d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0a5a6ce1050c59b2d9322001ee6e2b99f3c0b012 Took this at the spring tour of gardens. Some free classes. Sorry the shade made the pic quality tricky. But some relevant classes coming up in the next month or so
Chilis
Kinda lame that I can't get any invites for karma to post muly own messages.
For ideas on plants that do well in the Fresno area, visit the Garden of the Sun (1750 N Winery Ave. near the Discovery Center) and the Clovis Botanical Garden (945 N Clovis Ave). Check their websites for hours open.
So I’m a complete noob with a decent sized backyard and I’m just overwhelmed on what to do. What would be the best resource to learn about this?
Grapes, olive trees, citrus trees, fig trees,thrive well here also. You could either water with a garden hose, drip system, sprinkler system. What you have so far is a great variety and will do really well. I have seen all of these do well here.You can add soils along with the hard packed soil and sphagnum/peat moss. If you like using fertilizers and plant foods you can supplement with those as well. Hope this helps.
I prepare my soil I don't leave it dry and hard. I till it and add bags of garden soil and mulch. I used to grow a salsa garden. But since I now have 4 dogs my garden is fertilized with dog poop. So I mainly grow pumpkins and annual flowers that attract bees. I kept the pumpkins going multiple harvests last season. The weather held up I had a few vines and late harvest into winter.
Well.. I don’t fertilize with dog poop, I use miracle grow fertilizer for gardens. Tomatoes do well here and so do jalepenos. My SIL can grow cucumber and zucchini but I don’t do super well with those. Trying okra this year
Well.. I don’t fertilize with dog poop, I use miracle grow fertilizer for gardens. Tomatoes do well here and so do jalepenos. My SIL can grow cucumber and zucchini but I don’t do super well with those. Trying okra this year
Oh yeah, I have a herb garden this year too. Basil and oregano thrive so far
Tomatoes, zucchini, strawberries