Fruit trees can be planted in fall, winter, or spring, but only in winter are bare root trees available.

There are many ways to make attractive, decorative wreaths year-round. The variety of possible shapes, sizes, backings, decorations, and attachment methods allow for great creativity. Wreath making provides excellent opportunities to recycle and reuse man-made items and natural objects.

Like every other community organization in Alameda, Alameda Backyard Growers’ (ABG) Project Pick faced a dilemma when COVID-19 shut down the Bay Area back in March. How could volunteers continue to meet in large groups to pick backyard fruit trees at several locations?

Harvest. In our supermarket-surrounded and 24-hour mini-mart available lives, many of us have lost the concept of what this word once meant. My grandfather, however, was thrilled when as a teenager a century ago he and his brother worked with a crew on a gas-powered hay baler.

Alameda Backyard Growers (ABG) was founded 10 years ago by Amanda MacLean Bruemmer and Janice Edwards in response to the economic meltdown as a way to build community, learn about growing food and give back to those in the community in need.

Just like humans, plants have friends and foes and can thrive or fail when planted in close proximity to one another. By definition, planting one or more types of plants together in a beneficial relationship is called companion planting.

As if there isn’t enough to worry about in 2020, the Bay Area is in the grip of another drought year, having received only 40 percent of the average annual rainfall. Wait! Don’t run away. There is actually something gardeners can do about this problem: Build a simple drip-irrigation system.

In a time of food insecurity, what could be more inviting than a tree covered in fruit? Then again, sometimes the gods can be too kind. Overly generous fruit loads have a way of breaking branches and yielding small, poor-quality fruit if not managed in a timely manner. 

In March 2010, Alameda Backyard Growers (ABG) held its first meeting. Formed in response to the financial crisis in 2008, we created educational programming and set up Project Pick to help our community grow and donate food.