Santa Clara

Garden Help Santa Clara Valley, also known as the Valley of Heart's Delight, is an ideal place for growing a wide variety of fruits & nuts. UC Master Gardeners can help you determine how to get started, how to nurture young trees, and how to get the most out of mature trees.

Garden Help > Fruits & NutsUC Links How to grow and Pest management: AvocadoUC Riverside: Avocado Information Home PageThe BasicsWhen to plant: March–April (after last frost date)Harvest window: Varies widely depending on varietyFertilization: Nitrogen throughout the growing season; iron, zinc,…

Green onions, also called bunching onions or scallions, grow easily from seed or transplants. Most green onions sold in grocery stores are simply bulbing onions (Allium cepa), picked while young, long before they form a bulb. But there is also Welsh onion/Japanese bunching onion (Allium fistulosum), which…

Start slip production in February–March Transplant to garden May–June Sweet potatoes are grown from 'slips' (sprouts from a sweet potato). Due to pest quarantines, most nursery companies cannot ship slips to California.

Garden Help > Vegetables UC LinksPest management: Cabbage cultural tips, pests, and diseasesThe BasicsWhen to plant: Transplant: February–April, August–September (maybe October)Harvest windowHarvest as soon as they reach maturity (the head is firm and has reached an acceptable size).Leaving…

There are two types of fennel: Florence fennel, also called bulbing fennel: grown primarily for the bulb-like base of the stalks which is eaten as a vegetable. Leaves and seeds can also be harvested. Common and bronze fennel: grown just for the seeds or foliage (they do not form succulent bulbs), but are…

Lavender has many uses in the home garden. It can be a hedge, border, or part of an herb garden. In culinary use, lavender flowers are used in herbal teas and desserts. There are many more uses for lavender in fragrances, potpourris and sachets, oils, and aromatherapy. The various cultivars of lavender…

Starting seeds in pots can give your vegetables, herbs, and flowers a head start before being transplanted into the garden. This makes it possible to enjoy earlier harvests and earlier blooms. Sturdy transplants can better withstand pests, diseases, and difficult weather.

This page lists all of our gardening tips, sorted alphabetically by title. To view lists of tips by month or topic, visit our Tips & Events web page.Ailing Ornamental TreesIf you have an ailing tree, here are some questions you can ask yourself to begin diagnosing the problem: is the entire canopy of the…

Garden Help > SucculentsBold indicates easier to locate plantsSummer Growers (Winter Dormant)This group is generally regarded as the “summer growers”. Many of these will also enter a pseudo rest period for a few weeks during the hottest part of the summer before putting on a final burst of growth in…