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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.

 

A wooden shipping pallet. (Photo: A. Collin)
Article

Picking Pallets for Raised Beds

August 19th, 2024
Raised bed gardening has become increasingly popular among gardeners who seek more control over their growing environments. It can offer an alternative way to garden especially in some of our areas where native soil just isn't great to grow things.
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The reverse side of a cucumber leave covered in aphids and their excretions.
Article

2024: A Year of Disease and Pestilence

August 12th, 2024
This year I was determined to create the model garden that I have long dreamed about, but those dreams of neat, weed-free rows of vegetables, trees hanging with fruit, and armfuls of flowers are far from being fulfilled.
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A patch of former lawn, mostly dead, with a few green weeds and Bermudagrass
Article

Lawn-pocalypse! Surviving Drought

July 11th, 2024
Ah, summer! The season of sunburns, pool parties, and lawn droughts. If your once lush, green carpet now looks like a crunchy brown doormat, you're not alone.
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A hand turning the adjuster on an operating flood bubbler
Article

Let's Talk About Flood Bubblers

July 1st, 2024
By Dustin W Blakey
I know you've seen them. Little caps on the end of vertical irrigation pipe that can be adjusted to control flow with a twist (or screwdriver). They are called flood bubblers and are used widely in the Eastern Sierra to deliver water to woody plants outside of a lawn sprinkler system.
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A small, white grub being held in a gloved hand.
Article

Understanding Chafer Beetles From Root to Ruin

May 22nd, 2024
I was dealing with a gopher problem in a lawn awhile back and I came across another turfgrass pest that you may or may not be familiar with; a chafer beetle. These white grubs are the immature larval form of a chafer beetle. Here in California we deal mainly with the masked chafer (Cyclocephala spp.
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