wcgypsy...recent transplant from San Diego County to Crescent City...will be growing familiar plants, looking forward to growing some new to me and listening for tsunami warning sirens.....

Welcome to Northern California, wcgypsy. Crescent City is a nice place, a lot different than you last place of residence, that's for sure.

I have several friends who are from there and it is about 75 miles from where I live.

Long thread... and still going. Hi everyone, my name is Guy and I live in Fremont. I love vegetable and flower gardening but most of my efforts are towards growing the food I eat. I do a lot of raised beds, self-watering containers, and dirt gardening. My speciality/hobby is utilizing space to grow vegetables in what otherwise would be space that is good for nothing. For instance, I cut down a Palm tree but didn't want to spend the $$$ to have to stump removed. So I carved out the inside with a chainsaw and planted an artichoke plant there. I also attend two vegetable gardening "MeetUps" in San Jose and one in Oakland.

Thanks, still kris....
Does that put you somewhere close to Miller's? If so, lucky you....

I am Dot, in Rocklin. I have done a bit of veggies in containers, and finally have the yard graded so i can start building in-ground garden beds.

Winter veggie garden turned out great, and now i am planning a tomato strategy for my very hot yard during a very dry year. For 43 years i thought i hated fresh tomatoes until ii grew my own pot of Sweet 100s for my husband. And then i discovered Black Krim, and Black Cherry. Oh my! I am adding Super Sioux for its heat tolerance, plus some very early determinants to try for a crop before the really hot summer temps set in.

Longer term plans include fruit such as pomegranate, fig, persimmon, grapes, citrus, and also blueberries if i can find a suitable spot...i have mostly southern and western exposure, not much afternoon shade.

I am so glad to have found this thread!

Oh, Dot...I do envy you with the persimmons! I will miss mine for sure, don't think they will do well here at all...love Hachiyas and Fuyus...mmmmm.

Have fun with it...what a project!

I'm in Lake County [Middletown]. We have a small lot with some new fruit trees -- pear, apple, peach and quince. Already present were three old grape vines - both seedless and seeded. Last summer/fall we ate the seedless and turned the others into grape juice. That was probably an act of sacrilege - some day we'll find out that we made juice from award winning wine grapes. (or not) Three English walnuts are left over from the orchard days plus one mulberry tree.

I've done some Earth-box type plantings until settling down. We are preparing two raised beds for veggies and tomatoes - keeping things small because of the drought.

I've spent the morning cutting back two overgrown oleanders -- they are going to be pulled out completely. Next year (hoping for a wet El Nino), maybe I'll be able to put lilacs in that space.

yay for lilacs! Have you had a chance to grow them before?

Hey everyone!

I moved to the South Bay (San Jose) 2 years ago. I am loving every second of gardening down here...year round gardening is THE best!!!
My husband and I have completely redone our entire landscaping (the house was abandoned and everything inside and out was in rough shape).

Planted some arbutus, have a ton of aloes, agaves, sedums, citrus, a few palms, roses, veggies, grasses etc

We have no turf anywhere, so the neighbors probably think we are nuts!

We are also trying a backyard miniature orchard...should be interesting. We have 2 plum trees, a nectarine, 3 pluots and about 4 varieties of mandarins in a tiny raised area on our side yard.

I love this forum...everyone has been so helpful since i knew nothing about gardening in this climate as we came here from Ontario where there is snow on the ground for 5 months of the year!

I'm Zaven in Wildcat Canyon up in the hills above San Pablo. I have several levels to garden on around the house in the woods of bay, old oaks, redwoods, eucalyptus and pines. The filtered sun through the trees does not allow for that citrus vegee potager others get to have. I put in palms, tree ferns, flax, and yucca with various under plantings for what a friend calls the Jurassic park look. Like other posts have mentioned, gophers and some other large burrowing beasts used to invade the space. I tried planting a mix of euphorbias, also called gopher spurge, which did the trick in my case. Underground raiders have ceased displacing plants and step stones.

hey everybody,

i'm in s. sacramento. growing tomatoes, herbs, beans, persimmon, nectarine, lime this year. the herbs/beans/tomatoes are in fabric pots.

Wow... I am loving this thread. I have not seen it before.
I'm Roksee from Benicia... not far from American Canyon.
I'm a Berkeley transplant and originally from Chicago. I am so amazed at the climate changes here. Right now I'm concentrating on building a little pathway through my garden in the back yard.
I love it that I can ask folks questions about gardening that actually live in my own area.

I'm on Bethel Island in eastern Contra Costa county. (Sacramento/San Joaquin rivers delta) New to gardening. Water here is really bad (ph 9, soil is sandy or clay depending where you dig and there may be more moles/voles than people here. I garden so I can have a nice yard. I'd like to find out what will thrive here. Any other Bethel Islanders out there?

Hi all, my name is Mary and I live in Walnut Creek (Zaven, I spent a lot of time in Wildcat Canyon when I was a kid!). I live on an acre and my husband and I rebuilt our house 4 years ago and landscaping got shortisrift....might've had something to do with the Great Recession! So I'm in charge of planting EVERYTHING! We planted fig, pear, Meyer lemon, bonanza orange trees, maple, plum (non fruiting) and magnolia trees last Spring. I'm into fragrance gardening so have jasmine, lilac, roses, rhododendrons. I have one major hillside that I planted four years ago---what a lesson that has been. And of course I grow the obligatory vegetables in raised beds in a garden area protected from the deer. I also compost and have a worm farm. Yeah, I keep busy.

To all of you above...you're all in such excellent areas for gardening...pretty cool, huh?

Hi! I'm Laura and I live in Happy Camp, CA on the border with Oregon in the beautiful State of Jefferson! We rent a place on the river that has about 2 acres. I like flowers, but they are more of a bonus. I focus mostly on things I can EAT!

We have an aging asparagus plot with some rhubarb, a pretty big garden (50 x 50-ish), and lots of funky old fruit trees - some make fruit and some don't. We just planted a couple new ones, but they probably won't fruit anytime soon.

In the garden I have Hood strawberries, Royalty raspberries, kale, lettuce, carrots, garlic, radishes (yuck!), Northern Lights tomatoes (favorite!) and others, ancho peppers, Millionaire eggplant, feral tomatillos and feral cilantro. I irrigate in the summer using a drip system I put together from Drip Works. Our garden would never survive without it!

Hi I'm Sheila and I live in Sacramento County just north of Elk Grove. I have a Meyer lemon, Rio Red grapefruit, Moro blood orange and a kumquat tree. All but the grapefruit are in pots. I'm planning on adding a lime tree since limes are going through the roof! Currently in my backyard veggie garden (3 raised beds of varying sizes) I have tomatoes and peppers growing. Also have a white japanese wisteria shading my patio. My front flower garden is a cottage garden and I have too many different plants to mention. In the side yard between our house and one of our neighbors I also have a bed of daylilies that are just starting to bloom. I love this time of year! The only downer is that the weeds have gotten away from me so I have a lot of pulling to do (I am an organic gardener, so no chemicals....) :)

Hi, I'm Vasu. We just bought a home on the Monterey-Salinas Highway and am looking forward to planting fruit trees and veggie beds, as well as some fragrant roses. Love all the great information on this site! Would appreciate advice on some varieties of fruit trees that would do well here.

Hello, I'm Richard. Live and work in Las Cruces N.M. but have a house and two gardens in Westport, CA. One garden is on the ocean and the other is in the redwoods. Grow thousands of Rhododendron, Magnolias, Camellias, Proteas, Cloud Forest plants, etc.
Biggest problems are the summer drought, deer, gophers, and lack of any local help.

I'm up in Redding. It is a horrible summer with severe water restrictions. I normally use 11 acre feet per year on this five acres, but all they've alloted to me is .658 af to last until February!

I am working desperately to maintain my ornamentals and perennial vegetable plants but I've had to let three acres of pasture go and the fruit trees are mostly on their own.

I usually keep this place neat as a pin, but I can't dare to use mower or even line-trimmer on the dry grass and its tough to see everything suffer so.

I hope El Niño makes its way back to sunny California this fall!

Hello all! I thought I bring this thread back to the top. I'm Mark from Petaluma in Sonoma County. We live on 5 acres west of town. This year we grew summer and winter squash. (loving the Tatumes we tried for the first time this year) Tomatoes, Tomitillios, Egg Plant, Garlic, Potatoes, Artichokes, Beets and Chard. I have about 115 pumpkin plants in my patch. We invite our friends and family out to get pumpkins on "Pumpkin Day" whatever is left over we donate to our local food bank. In addition to our garden we are raising three Angora goats for their fiber. We currently have eight Jacob sheep also for fiber and meat. Two Cashmere Goats, three miniture horses. a miniture donkey, two dogs and three cats round out our collection of animals. How's the drought treating you?

How's everyone doing recovering from the harsh conditions over the summer? Contrary to TV weather casts, we are not having a drought in the far NW coastal part of the state. Of course, we (longer term residents) all try to conserve year round regardless of the forecast, but it is good to see everything green and growing. I live near enough to the coast to get fog drip so my yard was only brown for three or four weeks.

Got around 500 garlic planted out in raised beds as well as containers. Have not had frost enough to stop anything from growing. Finally had to rip my pumpkins and summer squash out--they were very sad looking, but still pumping out fruit. Had our first night getting into the 30s a couple of days ago--that is rare.

We've been in Crescent City for a year now, and yep....maybe this last year has been considered drought here, but with 30-some inches of rain compared to the maybe 6 we were getting in SoCal.....I'm quite happy with it. I could no longer stay where rain was getting more and more scarce and water prices higher and higher....and I'm thrilled to have a well here and when people talk about rain barrels, etc, it does make sense. We actually get enough rain to save water and will take advantage of that. It's been mild until this week, finally getting some frost showing on the rooftops....39 degrees here tonight, I believe and we're three blocks from the water...

This is more like a good old regular winter here, wcgypsy, where it is frosty many mornings in November, December and on into winter. And 30" really isn't a lot of rain, but a good start at getting back to "normal." Lowest temperature I have experienced here less than a half mile from the ocean is 17F. That did a good job of killing quite a few things in my yard--good to have a head's up once in awhile, eh?

Well, last Winter was a good introduction to how cold it can be here.....and for the last 30-some years I lived where I had no frost at all....lol. I'm lobbying hard for a greenhouse, but in the meantime we have a paved strip on the south side of the house that can be a good heat sink and I will be setting up container veggies and wind protection. It will be interesting to see which plants will make it through the Winter and which will rot. I've been digging out a lot of sod and piling it out of the way and it dawned on me that this mound would provide excellent drainage for some questionable plants, like my echiums. The most difficult thing for me to get used to is wearing shoes.....

Hello from the Grizzly flats part of Somerset, which is 20 miles southeast of Placerville.

It appears as though the drought has been broken, as last year we barely got any frost, and only a minimum of snow.

We are at 3500' in elevation with snow every winter, and lots of heat and drought during the summer, though we are not as hot as Placerville or the Sacramento Valley.

Last year was a good year for tomatoes...I did have 20 plants, and I am late taking them down, as the frost has recently covered them. But not bad to have (some) tomatoes into December. The longest bearing ones were Sungold Hybrid. I do grow heirlooms as well.

My efforts at corn were not good so I ended taking them out. Most years I grow squash, but did not do so since we were to leave on a trip to the PNW which ended up being a trip on the Oregon Coast, from Brookings to Astoria. I just left the tomatoes to their own devices as we left October 16th and did not return until after November 10th.

This is a very long-running thread. Who of the original posters are still here. Maybe we can go to a new thread, once everyone is on board with it.

Raised in Oroville, Marysville,,,hot climate, now in Napa Valley warm days and cool nights.Limited hours of sun in back yard so impossible to "rotate" crops. Except for Chard, Bell peppers and recently discovered Snow peas...work quite well AM sun and afternoon shade...this year will plant 3 batches 2 weeks apart..They are delicious and quite expensive in stores or Farmer's markets..

"This is a very long-running thread. Who of the original posters are still here. Maybe we can go to a new thread, once everyone is on board with it."

There IS a new thread! It is here;

Northern California Roll Call 2.0!

You can take me off that roll call now. We've traded in Monterey Bay for Hanalei Bay.

There hasn't been any posts for a while, but I'm Shane, located between Red Bluff and Chico, CA. We're the tree service and landscape company. My passion is water conservation, habitat development, and tree care. My better half and I keep a year-round garden as well.

You can also strike what I said about tropical Papayas wont grow here. Because of climate change I have a few that survived the winter and are into their second summer. That's one winter better then I ever got in trying in the 80's,90's and around 2005. Those never lasted through December.

Wow, Steve! I didn't think there WERE any other gardeners in Crescent City.....

Well, I have to amend something I said a year ago. I was wrong and we DO have gophers in my yard...lol..it's an old familiar story with me so I'm back to planting almost everything in wire. In SoCal most things were planted in wire, but I did not expect to do that here....no real signs of gophers, I scoffed at the idea....lol..

Until we disturbed the ground by adding onto the back of the garage...they must have had an entire city going on under there for years, because they started surfacing everywhere. Their presence was so strong that I've planted everything they 'normally' wouldn't bother in wire also.

I thought I would also be doing the big trees, just ride my mower thing...then we bought an old house in town on a small lot...the small lot is okay, I'm getting too old to do a couple of acres now...the problem being that I have a friend in Pistol River who closed her nursery and gave me tons of plants...and who can say no? Between what she likes and what I like, I find that I'm growing a lot of the same things I grew in Fallbrook, plus things that grow well here that did not 'down south'...and trying to squeeze them all onto this tiny yard. Probably just as well that I do not live any closer to Miller's. I'm planting mostly deer resistant, though a few things I spray with dilute essential oil (lavender right now) to discourage the deer. They are occasional visitors, not nightly.

Since we have been here (2 years now), there has been no 'normal' as far as temps and rainfall, so it's all experimental to some extent....finding that my echiums and salvias have done well where I expected them to maybe rot....

This yard was empty when I started, still digging out sod and hoping I live long enough to see my trees grow...lol..

Hi everyone! My name is Victoria.We moved from Discovery Bay to Lathrop 3 years ago.I love my new place because for the first time nearly 20 years, I finally have a real backyard to grow my own fruits.

The previous owner had nothing around the house but rocks. We spent our first year trying to separate rocks from soil and get rid of them.It wasn't an easy job, but we got it done.At that point, I was ready to be a serious gardener.

I got most of my fruit trees from LA :

Mango:Valencia Price,Nam Doc Mai,Mallika,Glenn,Pickering, Kesar, and Tebow

Lychee:Sweetheart,Hak Ip

Longan:Kohala,Biew Kiew

Sapodilla:Alano,Morena

Guava:Giant seedless Thai,Taiwanese,and Vietnamese

Citrus: Mayer.Kumquat,Australian finger citrus,Kaffir lime

Also Star fruit,Miracle Berry,Barbados Cherry,Wax Apple,Dragon fruits,Grumichama, Cherry of the Rio Grande,and Goji Berry.

Last year I got fruits from most of the trees ,and this year is also going to be a better one.

Gardening has given me so much joy and it keeps on giving.

Oh, lucky you! Look at all those yummies! Happy for you growing stuff...that's what it's all about.

Jake from Sacramento! I grow Armenian cucumbers, Mexibell Peppers, Marconi sweet peppers, Cherokee Purple and Ace 55 'Maters

Hello everyone. I am in Livermore. Sadly, discovered that my 1/3 acre yard was basically a poor quality soil dump site from the subdivision, finding lumps of asphalt 2-3 feet down in the middle of my yard. So I have spent a few years learning the best ways to amend the soil and get my trees off and running. Currently have a lot going on.

Front yard is a 80% CA native yard with CA fusha, poppies, CA grasses, lupin, penstamin, Mission olive, buckwheat, Myer lemon, strawberry guava, pineapple guava, white sage, agave, and a Buddha's hand.

The side yard has 3 espaliered apples with 6 varieties each as well as 1 tiger fig, 1 mission fig, 1 Ruby red grapefruit, 1 Alberta peach, 1 Kumquat, 2 pineapple guavas and a white guava.

The back yard has 7 4x6 veggie box planters that grow seasonal veggies. There are also:

13 blueberry plants, 2 apples, 2 cherries, 2 pomegranates, 1 barres lime, 3 nectarines, 1 fruit salad tree, 3 apricots, 1 4in1 pluot, 2 figs, 1 3in1 pear, 2 tangerines, 1 valencia orange, 1 cara cara orange, 1 texas red grapefruit, 3 currants, 1 jujubi, 4 blackberries, 7 artichoke, 5 collard trees and I am giving avocados a go. I know its not the ideal climate by any stretch, but made it through winter with my Fuerte and Mexicola grande... hoping for the best. If anyone in the area has old avos, I would love to chat...

Viper, your 1/3 of an acre is put to good use!

I'm Mary from Walnut Creek.
Perhaps I've answered this roll call before but since this is such a long thread there's no way to know!

I live on an acre property but only a small part has deer fencing so that is where I do the majority of my vegetable gardening, etc. I grow lots of herbs, and the usual assortment of tomatoes, squash, cucumber, strawberries raspberries, BlackBerries ollalieberries. Last year, my winning tomatoes were copper river and Sungold. This year I'm planting them again and hope to have the same results.

Another garden area the deer have free range to so I have worked hard to plant only deer-resistant things like salvias irises lilacs lavenders Rosemary magnolias & maple trees, barberries Arctotis read Bequia oakleaf hydrangea etc.

My main challenge has been my maple trees which seem to wilt in the heat. If I had 1 million bucks I think I might pay that if somebody could figure out how to solve this problem.

MK, what is the plant in the second picture?

Viper, have any photos to share?

Leucadendron 'Cloud Nine' I think it is!

Thank you, it looks so petite.

I'm Charles from Arbuckle, a small almond farming town north of Sacramento. It's hot, dry and windy, which makes it a challenge to grow tropical plants. Just ask my King Palm that has hated me since I planted it a couple years ago. The Queen Palms absolutely thrive in this climate though.

I have been successul with growing citrus and other fruit trees on my small 1/4 acre lot that is mostly house. I have chosen conifers mostly- various junipers and Cyprus. The boxwoods do great here as well.

I am hoping to trade scions with locals this fall and winter. I have apple, cherry, plum, orange, lemon, blood orange, lime, and avacado. I would love to get my hands on some various rock fruit and apples.

First cherry on my little cherry tree.

Nice Charles. My kids stripped my cherry tree already. Have a ultra dwarf Bing from Lowe's planted last year. It has exploded with growth but only managed 6-7 cherries. Hoping for more next year. :)

viper75, I see you are doing avocados in Livermore. Those hardier Mexican varieties should easily survive your winters, as some of your other fruit trees and shrubs are not even that hardy. Mexicola tolerates at least 20f, which is like a once in a lifetime cold snap. The bigger challenge is the soil and heat. Also, if your cherries are not prolific, then that's a good sign that you microclimate isn't getting a ton of chill hours, which would bode well for the avos. When I was growing up in Walnut Creek, we had tons of cherries and stone fruit, benefiting somewhat from a dry creek bed behind our property that would funnel in cold air in the winter. After my parents moved to a property less than a mile away with some elevation, they had almost no frost anymore, and the stone fruit and cherries don't produce like they did at the other property. However, they can grow more tender things much better. Sounds like you might be in a similar spot which is probably pretty good all-around for a lot of different types of plants. Would love to see some pictures of your subtropical fruit trees.

If this thread is not too old to add to, hello from the peninsula, where we have rarely get as hot as we have this year! I have a house that like Viper's was mostly clay and construction debris, but the builders did amend and grade the worst parts of it. We back up to a creek lined with oaks and redwoods. My yard is mostly drought resistant natives, except for about 20 rose bushes, and the fruit trees. I have lavender of different kinds, oakleaf hydrangea, yarrow, abuliton, some cone flowers in the flower beds that flank a native grass meadow. Fruit trees: Santa Rosa plum, flavor king pluots, fuji apples, blenheim apricots, and several citrus. Just planted a dwarf avocado without high expectations :) I would take some pics for you, but the recent heat has made the yard look kinda brown and dusty right now!

KC

You must not have any deer there.

No, but I do get herons and hawks. And of course the scourge of the area, squirrels! Raccoons who play with my river rock, and coyotes.

Roseville too Ben. We have a Santa Rosa Plum, Persimon, and Meyer lemon trees. I mostly grow flowers in our backyard including mostly Cannas, Hollyhocks, and Bearded Iris.

No longer residing in NoCal. I moved to SW Washington the end of September. Managed to get my precious garlic planted in containers so I can keep the varieties I have been growing for 20 years or so. The climate here is similar to that in Humboldt County, perhaps a bit chillier and usually more rain here. I moved from 3/4 acre with great soil to a very small yard which is just about pure sand--some yellow clay as well here and there. Only a few shrubs--a couple cast iron rhodies, some lavender and a rosemary plant I put in fairly late in the year. Can't wait to see if the garlic makes it. It has already been pruned back by the deer which are treated like feral pets here. Plenty of gophers here, too.

I love Washington ! We went up and built a house there years ago, but only stayed 3 years..... would love to go back. We were on Whidbey, rainshadow, 15 inches if rain...where I learned about what deer eat...lol..and learned that I could probably shoot them...my deer here, in Crescent City can't get in my yard so I'mliking them more....