While you can forage for the fruits and pads or purchase them at grocery stores, you may be interested in growing your own opuntia cactus to harvest the fruits or leaves to eat at home or share with friends.

Prickly pears are easy to grow and will grow well in most areas of Southern California. They require little water, are drought tolerant and are an attractive addition to low-water, low-maintenance landscaping.

One important note before we talk about how to grow prickly pear cactus: Because they have harmful spines and glochids, prickly pear cactus should not be grown in areas where children or animals spend time.

How to Grow Prickly Pear Cactus

The first step in how to grow prickly pear cactus is to determine where you want to grow your cactus. Prickly pears can be grown in containers or in the ground. If you are growing in a container, choose a succulent and cactus mix for your soil and make sure the container has drainage holes. For better drainage, you can start with a layer of gravel at the bottom of the container. When growing prickly pears in containers, you will need to transplant them into larger pots whenever the cactus gets rootbound.

Opuntia cactus will tolerate less-than-ideal soil, but they do prefer well-draining, sandy or loamy soils and may not do as well in some areas of coastal Southern California where there is heavy, clay soil unless you amend it to improve drainage. If you are working with heavy, clay soil that is slow draining and retains moisture, consider mixing in some peat moss or sand to improve soil structure.

Once you have decided whether you are growing your cactus in the ground or in a container, you will need to decide how you want to start your cactus. You have three options for this: starting from seed, propagating from a cutting, or purchasing a young plant at your local nursery.

Purchasing a young plant at a nursery is, of course, the easiest way to get started and simply requires transplanting your cactus to a sunny spot with well-draining soil. Established plants can handle full sun all day and require minimal water. It is best to transplant prickly pears in spring, but if you are in a dry, arid area of Southern California, you really should be fine to transplant your cactus any time of the year.

Growing Prickly Pear Cactus for Cuttings

If you want to start your own cactus, the easiest way to do this is through propagation using a cutting. You will first need to acquire your cutting, which you can do through foraging or asking someone who has an established plant. Choose a healthy pad and use gloves and a sharp knife to hold the pad and remove it from the plant by cutting above where it attaches to the plant. Be careful not to cut into the plant below where the pad is attached, since this can damage the plant.

Once you have cut the number of pads you wish to propagate, lay them out in a dry, shady area away from children and pets. Leave them out for about a week to allow the cut to dry and form a callus. Then place the callused end of the pad one to two inches deep in a container and tamp the soil to help the pad stand upright. If you are having issues with it leaning or falling over, you can use small rocks to help support it.

It is best to allow your cactus to grow in the container for about a year before transplanting it into your garden. This will allow you to better control the growing conditions and allow the plant to take root and start producing new growth. You may want to keep the planted pad out of mid-afternoon sun until it begins to establish, but you can move it outside as soon as it is planted most times of the year. If you live in an area with particularly cold winters, you may want to keep your opuntia indoors until spring.

Your cactus will require a bit more water early on, so watch for the soil drying out, and then give it about an inch of water. You may need to do this once or twice per week at first. You will know your cactus is established once you start to see new growth. At this time, you can reduce irrigation to about one-quarter inch of water per week during hotter months and one-quarter inch of water every other week in colder months.

Once your plant is established, it will be able to handle full sun all day, so you can move it to its permanent location.

Growing Prickly Pear Cactus from Seeds

Growing prickly pear cactus from seeds is possible, but it takes longer and requires a bit more work. It is much easier and more convenient to grow your cactus from a cutting, but if cuttings are not available or you prefer to grow from seeds, here are some tips to get you started.

First, you will need to acquire prickly pear cactus seeds. You can purchase seeds online or at some nurseries, or you can harvest them from a prickly pear fruit. If you harvest them from fruit, you will need to completely clean off any pieces of the fruit and allow them to dry before planting them.

Fill small pots or a seed tray with succulent and cactus mix, place one seed in each pot or each section of the seed tray, and push them just slightly into the soil. Since opuntia seeds require light to germinate, you do not want to push them too far into the soil. Place your pots under grow lights or on a sunny windowsill to allow for germination.

Keep the soil moist but not wet as you wait for them to germinate. Once you have seedlings, watch the color to see if they need more or less light. If they look yellowish, move them to a sunnier spot. If they look red or brown, they need a spot with less light. If they are green, then they are happy where they are.

If you start your seeds in pots, you can allow them to grow in that pot until they outgrow it. If you start them in seed trays, make sure they are developed and healthy before transplanting them to pots to continue growing.

General Tips for Growing Opuntia Cactus

Your prickly pear cactus will not need pruning except to remove damaged pads. These cacti also do not require fertilizer, but you can encourage health and growth of young plants with a 10-10-10 liquid fertilizer applied monthly. If you want to encourage the production of more flowers and fruits, use a 5-10-10 or a 0-10-10 fertilizer.

How to Harvest and Eat Prickly Pear Cactus

The pads, flowers, fruit and stems of the prickly pear cactus are edible. The sweet fruits, which are generally called prickly pears or tunas, are eaten raw or used in making candies, jellies and jams. You can also make or buy prickly pear juice that can be enjoyed alone or used as a mixer for cocktails or mocktails. The pads (aka leaves) are eaten raw or cooked in a variety of dishes, including salads, soups, tacos, jams, or egg dishes.

Both the pads and fruits are used in traditional medicine to treat an array of illnesses, including diabetes and high cholesterol. You will most often see it called nopal or nopales when purchasing powders, teas or other natural remedies made from the opuntia cactus for these purposes.

According to the Mayo Clinic, prickly pear cactus is high in fiber, carotenoids and antioxidants, and “Some preliminary evidence shows that prickly pear cactus can decrease blood sugar levels in people with type 2 diabetes. Some research also suggests that prickly pear cactus extract may lessen the unpleasant effects of a hangover, possibly due to its anti-inflammatory effects.” (MayoClinic.org)

Harvesting prickly pear pads and fruits can be dangerous, so it is imperative that you take appropriate precautions to protect yourself during this task.

Before you can use the fruits or pads, you must first remove them from the plant. The mature pads will have sharp spines and a more fibrous texture, so it is best to choose young pads that are bright green and about the size of your hand. Wear thick gloves to protect your hands and arms from the spines while you hold the pad with one hand or sturdy tongs. Use your other hand to cut the pad, or nopal, from the plant.

Once you have harvested the pads, use a vegetable peeler to carefully remove the spines and the outer edge of the pads. Wash the pads, and then store them in the refrigerator to use within a few days, or use them immediately raw or cooked. The easiest ways to cook with nopales are to either grill the pad whole, and then cut it into strips to serve as a side dish, or to chop the nopales into strips or cubes and sauté them to add to egg dishes, side dishes or salsa.

To harvest prickly pear fruits, also known as tunas, you will need thick gloves or tongs to remove them from the cactus. While the fruits do not have spines, they do have glochids, which are nearly invisible, hair-thin splinters that are easy to get in your skin and difficult to get out. Therefore, while wearing your thick gloves for protection, twist each tuna off of the cactus to harvest them. Greener fruits are younger and will not be as sweet as riper fruits, which will be shades of oranges, red or purple.

Once you have gathered your opuntia fruits, you will need to remove the glochids before you can consume the fruits. You can achieve this by burning them off or peeling them off. To burn them off, stick a fork in the end of the fruit to provide a handle for holding it over an open flame. Use the flame from your stove, barbecue grill or a culinary torch to burn off the glochids.

Alternatively, you can peel the skin off by using two forks to avoid touching the fruit with your hands. To begin, stick the fruit with one of the forks. Cut off both ends of the fruit, and then slice the skin lengthwise from end to end. Hold the fruit with one fork while using a second fork to peel the skin off of the fruit. If you do not burn off the glochids before peeling the fruit, remember that these can easily fall off onto your cutting board or counter top, so be sure to properly clean all surfaces and tools.

Once you have peeled the fruit, you can eat it as is or use the fruit in jelly, candy or juicing recipes. While it is okay to swallow some seeds, they are too hard to chew, and you do not want to consume them in large amounts.

The post How to Plant and Grow Prickly Pear Cactus appeared first on INSTALL-IT-DIRECT.

The arrival of ripe, sweet berries signals sunshine and summertime fun. However, it does take a bit of know-how to grow your own berries in Southern California so we’ve put together an overview of the best types to consider in addition to planting methods.

Before choosing a variety, you’ll need to analyze how much space you can allocate to berries as some require a lot of it. Others might need trellising and or stake support, which can easily be a DIY project.

Blackberries

The blackberry is the most heat-tolerant berry and a good choice for inland climates. They also happen to be among the berries that are the easiest to grow almost anywhere in Southern California.

Varieties that grow upright often don’t need a trellis (perhaps a few stakes instead) as canes (stems) can support a massive amount of fruit on their own. They’re called freestanding blackberries and do require a little bit of training to guide them into the right shape, but not nearly as much as other berries on this list.

Other varieties of blackberries will require large space in the garden and more advanced support. Therefore, the most important question to ask your local garden center is which type you’re buying and what it’s growing habit is if not listed on the tag.

Boysenberries

Did you know that boysenberries were actually developed in Southern California?  A family friend of the Knott’s family (Knott’s Berry Farm) developed a new strain by crossing a raspberry, a loganberry and a blackberry. Walter Knott was able to successfully reproduce the berry and named it after its original creator, Rudolph Boyson.

Boysenberries are usually planted by seed in well-draining soil and require full sun though can tolerate occasional light shade. It’s a vining plant that also does well in containers. If left to its own devices the plant can grow rather bushy which makes it difficult to harvest berries. Avoid hassle by training it to vine upward on a trellis or horizontally on a wire. Many experts prefer a two-wire trellis system as the second wire can train new growth during the plant’s second year.

Berries will appear after a year. If planting by seed, shoot to get them in the ground between October – November.

Blueberries

Blueberry plants are fantastic additions to Southern California gardens because they provide year-round interest with foliage that changes from green to red in the fall before leaves drop and regrow.

They’re actually easy-going plants if you plan accordingly. Armstrong Garden centers recommend purchasing two different types of blueberry plants to lengthen harvesting time and maximize yield. Southern California nurseries carry low-chill (southern highbush) blueberries which can tolerate mild winters as well as frequent sunshine. The upshot is that these berries are also the most flavorful.

Raspberries

This is another relatively-easy-care plant as raspberries do not require extensive pruning or trellising. A few stakes will typically do. It’s also so much better to grow them yourself to avoid the disappointment of finding spoiled berries in a pack purchased at the store as they have a short shelf life.

Raspberries are not terribly common plants to find in local nurseries so you may need to put in a special order. Most are commonly grown as annuals and trimmed to the ground after the last fruit of the season.

The list of raspberries one can grow is quite long. When it comes to red raspberries, there are basically two types: summer bearing and fall bearing. Keep in mind that plants have thorns as well as require full sun and regular water.

Goji Berries

Goji berries might be the trendiest super fruit at the moment and it’s possible to save a little cash by growing your own. Native to Tibet, they are drought tolerant in California gardens once established. Fruit starts to appear during the second year. Pruning is recommended as berries form on new growth. Plants can grow up to 7′ tall if not pruned, though they do well as a container plant. You can even train them on a trellis if desired.

This video details how to grow goji berries in detail.

Strawberries

Spring is the best time to start strawberries, a very inexpensive plant to buy young at any local nursery. You can actually keep them in the ground year-round to display their pretty leaves when fruit isn’t in season but they typically do not survive beyond 3 years. Southern California gardeners have a choice of varieties so be sure to note which one it is that you’re purchasing.

June bearing plants tend to yield the most fruit. Alpine strawberries bear small fruit and make an excellent ground cover option. Day-neutral strawberries produce large quantities of fruit and are the type to buy if you would like a year-round yield. Yes, along the coast it’s possible to have a garden with strawberries in every season.

Once planted, your mission is to ensure that roots do not dry out. Bugs love strawberry plants so keep an eye on them. It’s best to find varieties that are certified disease-free.

If you’re not going to eat strawberries immediately, they’ll store longer if you pick them with the stem and crown attached.

Other “Berry” Good Advice

Be sure to check our tips for storing produce, including berries, to insure that you’re able to enjoy them for as long as possible.

If birds and other wildlife are plucking berries of the vines, consider protecting plants with netting.

Your eye is one of the best judges to determine when a berry is ripe as fruit will transition from green to a vibrant, uniform color. However, it should also slip off of its stem rather easily.

Time of day is also critical. It’s best to pick berries in the morning when they’re at their sweetest. Some berries spoil quickly and are much less flavorful when picked in heat. If morning isn’t doable, then evenings after sundown are your next best harvesting time.

Your Turn…

What kind of berries do you grow?

Photo credit: top, Flickr/robbertholf; blackberries, Flickr/donhomer; boysenberry, Flickr/pussreboots; blueberries, Flickr/spectrus; raspberry, Flickr/70097310@N00; goji berries, Flickr/ strawberries, Flickr/35168673@N03

The post How to Grow Berries in Southern California Guide appeared first on INSTALL-IT-DIRECT.

For those who want to go beyond strawberries and include another type of berry in their gardens, blueberries may be the best choice. They are easy to grow once established, incredibly healthy, and a kid-friendlier, dog-friendlier option when compared to some other berries.

Why You Should Consider Growing Blueberries

1. No Thorns: Blueberries have no thorns, which makes them a kid-friendly, dog-friendly choice. The thorny vines common with other types of berries can be difficult to work with and can injure children and pets, but thornless blueberries are easy to harvest without the need for gloves and long sleeves.

2. Compact Size: Unlike the sprawling vines you must train or wrangle with other types of berries, blueberries grow in compact bushes that are ideal for folks with small backyards or who want something that will not take up much space.

3. Can Be Grown in Containers: Blueberry bushes can be grown in the ground, but they do just fine in containers. This makes them one of the best berries for Southern California for people with limited space in which to grow fruits and vegetables.

4. Perfect for Patios: Because they are compact and can be grown in containers, blueberry bushes are the perfect addition to paving stone patios and other outdoor living areas.

5. Attractive All Year: Blueberry bushes give us flowers in spring, berries in summer, and beautiful, ornamental appeal in fall and winter. This is another reason they are a great choice for growing right in your outdoor living areas and make a good landscaping plant.

6. Five Decades of Berries: Once you get them established and continue to give them adequate care, a blueberry bush can provide fruit for up to 50 years.

7. Super Food Status: Antioxidant-rich blueberries have reached super food status for their ability to help protect us from ailments like heart disease and cancer. Studies have shown that they promote brain health and eye health and that this low-glycemic food can help regulate blood sugar. Blueberries also provide you with a good amount of fiber, vitamin K, vitamin C and manganese.

The Basics of Growing Blueberries

Blueberries are relatively easy to grow, but it does take a bit of preparation and effort early on to get them established and going strong. Soil preparation is particularly important for growing blueberries. The soil must drain well, should have plenty of organic matter and needs to be acidic. If you are planting in the ground, you can improve the soil by adding peat moss or a bark-based planting mix. Some gardeners find it easier to simply plant them in a bark-based planting mix with plenty of compost in a container, which allows you more conveniently manage soil acidity.

Whether you are planting in a container or in the ground, be sure to choose a sunny location. If you are planting in the ground, you will also need to be sure to space your blueberry bushes five or six feet apart (for the highbush varieties that do well in Southern California). After planting in the ground or in containers, be sure to add a layer of mulch around the base of each plant. This will help fend off weeds and retain soil moisture.

In some parts of the country, it is best to plant blueberries in spring or fall, but in coastal areas of Southern California, the mild climate allows us to generally plant them any time of the year.

Blueberries have shallow root systems, which means they will need more water than some of the other fruits and vegetables you grow in your backyard garden. Like we recommend for just about everything you grow, we recommend less-frequent, deep irrigation when growing blueberries.

For the first couple of years, it is best to remove blossoms and not allow your bush to fruit. After the third year, you will want to give each bush a good, annual pruning. At each pruning, you will remove any dead wood and growth around the base of the plant. It is okay to do quite a bit of pruning, so you can feel comfortable cutting back your plant by 1/3 or a bit more each year.

Birds will probably be your biggest problem with it comes to potential pests or diseases. To keep birds away when growing berries, you can place plastic hawks or owls around your garden (like scarecrows) or invest in bird netting to protect your plants.

Southern highbush blueberries are the best choice for Southern California. If you have room, it is best to have at least two varieties of blueberry bushes, which allows for cross-pollination and a longer harvest. To enjoy fresh blueberries as long as possible, it is best to have three varieties. Make sure you include at least one each of varieties that provide early-season, mid-season and late-season fruit to lengthen your harvest as much as possible.

Your Turn…

What are your favorite varieties and tips for growing blueberries in Southern California?

Photo credits (in order of appearance): morgueFile, wiselywoven; morgueFile, Samala; morgueFile, clarita; morgueFile, impure_with_memory

The post Growing Blueberries in Southern California {GUIDE} appeared first on INSTALL-IT-DIRECT.

It may seem a little early to be thinking about Halloween, but if you are hoping to grow your own pumpkins this year, it is actually already a bit late in the game.

This is a great project to do with your children and a fun way to introduce them to backyard gardening.

Growing pumpkins can help them begin to understand where food comes from, and they may find these fast-growing, expansive vines much more interesting than other plants in your garden that kids might find a bit mundane.

Pumpkins are also easy to grow, and the plants are easy to care for, which makes this gardening project a fun option for folks who were not born with a green thumb as well.

If you want to grow your own pumpkins for Halloween this year, the time to start is now, so read on (or print this post) for your guide to growing pumpkins, and then head to your local garden center to grab your supplies.

When to Plant Halloween Pumpkins

If you have some gardening experience, you might be thinking: Isn’t it a little late to be planting pumpkins for use in October?

In some parts of the country it would be, but they grow faster in warmer areas, and Southern California is definitely a warmer climate.

This is why you can still get away with planting pumpkins now in hopes of harvesting them in time to carve them for Halloween.

The ideal time to plant pumpkins in warmer areas, like Southern California, is around the end of May or the beginning of June.

If you live in the desert or mountains where frost is an issue, you will want to wait to plant your seeds until after the last frost.

If starting from seeds, you can actually start your seeds indoors as early as March, and then transplant them to your backyard garden once the weather warms up and the seeds have gotten a solid start.

However, I have never had a problem with sowing the seeds directly into the soil in the raised garden beds in my vegetable garden.

If you are planting your pumpkins in July, you might want to check your local garden center for starter plants that are already going strong and can be transplanted into your garden.

This will give you a nice head start, but you can also plant seeds and get some good pumpkins by October.

If you are planting late in the season, you will have the best chance of getting some good pumpkins by Halloween if you choose a smaller variety that will have time to mature before the big day.

Where to Plant Halloween Pumpkins

Where to plant your pumpkins is probably one of the most important things to consider, because this particular vine really likes to spread out and takes up quite a bit of room.

You may want to plant your seeds or starters along a fence, in an empty flower border, in a side yard or along your house where you do not have other things planted.

These fellows can easily grow to be about 30 feet long (or longer), so keep that in mind when you are picking the best spot in your backyard.

Picking a spot next to a fence or structure can also provide some wind protection for these wind-sensitive vines, so if you live in a particularly windy area, you will want to take that into consideration.

Pumpkins are sun lovers, so make sure the spot you pick gets plenty of sun.

How to Plant Halloween Pumpkins

Whether sowing seeds or transplanting from indoors or a nursery, you will want to prepare the soil first.

Regular potting soil for vegetable gardens is a good, simple start and will work just fine for most folks.

A humus-rich soil is a good choice, and pumpkins enjoy a little nitrogen, so if you test your soil and it is lacking, you may want to amend it before planting.

Pumpkin varieties vary greatly, particularly in size, so you will want to check your seed packet for the recommended distance to leave between plants.

You should plan to at least allow about three feet between plants, and it is best to make a single row to allow those vines to sprawl out and grow freely to their full length without crowding each other.

You can train the vines to encircle the plants, which allows you to better control the space each plant takes up, but this can make harvesting and watering a bit trickier once your plant is mature and, if done improperly, it can cause the plant to shade itself, which can cause problems.

If you are sowing seeds, push them about one inch into the soil.

Most Southern California homeowners are not going to need to worry too much about excessive rainfall, but you if you happen to live in an area where drainage could be an issue, then it is best to sow your seeds in mounds.

How to Care for Pumpkins

Once your pumpkins begin to sprout, you may want to add a bit more compost or potting soil around each plant to give them a little nutrient boost.

Pumpkins grown in wetter climates need little watering; however, those of us living in Southern California will have to water our plants regularly.

As long as we are experiencing drought conditions and managing our gardens under mandatory water restrictions, you will likely only be able to water your pumpkins two days each week.

This is actually just fine, since — like most plants — deep, infrequent watering is best.

Water your pumpkin plants deeply on your designated watering days, and your plants should do just fine.

Pumpkins, like other squash, are prone to fungal diseases, so you will need to keep an eye out for this.

If you begin to see a white, powdery substance on the leaves, fungus is likely setting in.

At this point, you may want to try spraying the leaves with a little neem oil or an anti-fungal solution from your local garden center.

You can help prevent this from happening by watering at the base of the plant, not getting the leaves wet and watering in the morning.

A little fertilizer every few weeks will help your plants thrive, but be sure to use a time-release formula to avoid burning your plants or giving them too much of particular nutrients, which could harm them.

You will need to pull weeds around your plants as they grow to keep the weeds from competing with your pumpkins for nutrients and water.

If you begin to notice aphids clinging to the bottom (or sometimes the top) of the leaves, your first line of defense is to spray the leaves with a strong steam of water to dislodge them.

There are lots of home remedies for aphids, including spraying the leaves with soapy water or spraying the leaves with neem oil.

You can also introduce beneficial insects, such as ladybugs, that will snack on the aphids or try an organic pesticide from your local garden center.

To ward of some pests that like pumpkins, such as squash bugs, plant marigolds around the perimeter of your garden (or around where your pumpkin vines are going to grow).

An added benefit of planting marigolds is that you can cut the flowers to use for Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebrations, which take place right after Halloween.

Keep an eye on the moisture level of the soil beneath your pumpkins.

If they are sitting on soil that is too moist, they may rot.

If you would like to personalize your pumpkins with your children’s names or Halloween sayings, you can carve your message into the shell of the pumpkin as it is growing.

A scar will form, and your message will be etched into the pumpkin as a fun surprise for your kids or guests after they are harvested.

How to Harvest Halloween Pumpkins

Different varieties take different lengths of time to mature, but most pumpkin varieties fall somewhere between about three and four months.

The most important thing to look for is a hardening of the shell, because without this, your pumpkins will rot quickly.

Once the shell has hardened, you can use kitchen shears or a knife to cut the stems.

It is best to keep the stem as long as possible; at least six inches is best.

A good stem is key to keeping your pumpkins from rotting prematurely, so do not pick your pumpkins up by the stem and try to keep the stem intact.

How to Keep Pumpkins for Rotting Before Halloween

As mentioned above, keeping a long stem on your pumpkins is one of the best things you can do to help ensure longevity.

It is best to display your pumpkins whole for the first part of the month in order to avoid rotting, and then carve them just before Halloween.

Keep them out of the sun and away from moisture, and avoid placing them directly on surfaces that will allow moisture to gather beneath the pumpkin.

While it might be tempting to keep them inside until it is time to carve them, they will stay fresh longer if you keep them outdoors out of the sun.

How to Use Halloween Pumpkins

Most folks who grow pumpkins for this holiday are probably planning on carving them, but creating unique jack-o-lanterns is not the only thing you can do with them.

If you display them whole, they can last you throughout the fall and into winter as a colorful outdoor decoration.

This does not mean that you cannot decorate them for the holidays; you can paint a jack-o-lantern face or Halloween message on a whole pumpkin for a display that lasts much longer then their carved counterparts.

If you do carve them, be sure to save the seeds, which can be roasted for eating or dried to save for next year’s planting.

If you want to save your seeds for next year, you will need to wash them well, spread them in a thin layer on some paper towels and allow them to completely dry.

Once they are completely dry (this is important to avoid mold), you can store them for use next year.

Once you are finished displaying your pumpkins, they make a great addition to your compost bin.

Your Turn…

What are your favorite tips for successfully growing pumpkins for Halloween?

Photo Credits (in order of appearance): morgueFile, earl53; morgueFile, bosela; morgueFile, pippalou; morgueFile, 5demayo; morgueFile, taliesin; morgueFile, Schick; morgueFile, earl53; morgueFile, mensatic

The post How to Grow Pumpkins For Halloween This Year appeared first on INSTALL-IT-DIRECT.

Avocados grow well in most parts of Southern California so, chances are, you can successfully grow avocado trees right in your backyard. While it is pretty easy to plant and grow avocados, there are a few things you need to know that can make the difference between having a great harvest or having no harvest at all.

Can I Grow Avocados from Seeds?

Yes, you can grow an avocado tree from a seed. In fact, if you spent your youth in Southern California, you probably started at least a few avocado trees by using toothpicks to suspend a seed in a cup of water. After somewhere between two and six weeks, you started to see roots and plant growth, and you may have even planted it in soil a few weeks later to see if it would grow.

Avocado trees will grow using this method, but there is little chance that they will every give you fruit. And, if it did, it would take about 10 years before you would have a harvest. So, if you are more interested in growing an avocado tree for ornamental purposes – for example, to grow in a container on your patio or as a houseplant – then this might be a good option for you. However, if you are hoping to eat avocados from your trees, then it is best to skip the seeds and purchase young trees at a local nursery to plant in your garden or orchard.

Best Conditions to Grow Avocado Trees

Avocados do best in warm climates and do not tolerate freezing conditions well. Some varieties do a bit better in colder weather, so if you live in an area with frost or freezes, you may want to try them. You will have the most luck with Mexican varieties, such as Mexicola or Fuerte. To increase your chances of success, plant your avocado trees between other fruit trees, wrap the tree in burlap before freezes and mulch around the trunk to protect the roots.

Avocado trees require good drainage and prefer loose, loamy or sandy soil. If you are working with the clay soil that is common in Southern California, you will want to plant avocado trees in mounds to improve drainage.

One of the most important things to remember about creating the best conditions for growing avocados is that your tree will need a pollinator. This is usually not a problem in Southern California, since they are commonly grown in backyards across this area. Chances are, you have an avocado tree growing near you but, if you do not, then you will need to plant more than one tree to help ensure your tree will bear fruit.

How to Grow Avocado Tree: How to Plant Avocado Tree

After choosing a spot to plant your tree, create a mound that is high enough to cover the pot. Make sure there is a space in the middle of the mound where you can place your tree. Take the tree out of the nursery pot and place it in the hole in the center of the mound you built.

If you live an area where deer come in your yard to feed, place deer fencing around your young trees to protect them.

Young avocado trees prefer some shade to protect them from the sun. Once they mature, the will do fine in full sun.

How to Care for Avocado Tree: Care and Maintenance

You will need to water your avocado trees at least twice per week for the first year. After the first year, you should be able to move to once per week for irrigation. In times of drought or prolonged heat, your avocado trees will require extra water.

To help the soil retain moisture and to protect the shallow root system of avocado trees, mulch with a thick layer of organic material around the base of the tree. Be sure to keep your mulch at least six inches from the tree trunk.

Avocado trees do not require much fertilizer and fertilizing too much can damage their shallow, delicate root system. It is best to use citrus tree food or avocado food and to give just a little fertilizer at a time.

You can prune your trees lightly throughout the year, but if your trees need heavy pruning, do it in late winter or spring.

How to Care for Avocado Tree: Pest Control

Folks who grow avocados are fortunate to deal with fewer pests than many other fruit trees, but there are still a few pests you may have to manage.

According to the University of California Cooperative Extension Agriculture and Natural Resource Ventura County website,

“With biological control beneficial insects (predators and parasites) prey on harmful insects to maintain a biological balance naturally making the use of chemical insecticides to control pests unnecessary. When chemical sprays are applied to avocados, not only is this target insect killed, but also the natural enemies of other pests. This reduction of beneficial insects causes the eventual buildup of the harmful insects. Therefore, unless there is an extremely heavy infestation of harmful insects causing economic loss, it is better to sustain minor damage and wait for the beneficial insects to increase in number and begin attacking the destroying and harmful insects.”

This means that natural pest control methods should be used whenever possible, such as the release of beneficial insects that target the insect causing harm to your trees. For example, if you are having trouble with brown mites, release lacewings, or, if you are having trouble with omnivorous looper, you can use the beneficial bacterium, Bacillus thuringensis. If you are having trouble with thrips, control the population with black hunter thrips that will pray on the avocado thrips.

You may find that you have an issue with rats climbing your trees to eat the fruit. You can curb this activity by wrapping the trunks with metal sheeting, which the rats cannot climb.

How to Store Avocados

Avocados that are not yet ripe should be stored at room temperature in a well-ventilated area. On your countertop or in a your produce basket will work nicely. Once your avocado is ripe, you can use it right away, or you can store it in the refrigerator to extend it’s life by two or three days.

If you cut an avocado and only use one half, the other half will brown quickly if it is not properly stored. Your best options for keeping the remaining half fresh and usable is to either use water or lemon juice. To store your cut avocado using water, remove the pit, pour a small amount of water in a food storage container, place the avocado in the water flesh-side down, cover the container, and store it in the refrigerator for one to two days.

To keep your cut avocado fresh using lemon juice you first remove the pit then spray or pour fresh lemon juice on the cut side, wrap it in plastic wrap, and store it in the refrigerator.

If you need green avocados to ripen quicker, place them on a sunny windowsill or put them in paper bag with a banana or an apple. Bananas and apples hasten ripening by releasing ethylene gas, which is why you usually want to store them away from your other fruits and vegetables, but, in this case, their ripening capacity is helpful in making sure your avocados are ready in time for your next dinner party.

How to Use Fresh Avocados

Sliced, fresh avocados can be placed on salads, tacos, tostadas, sandwiches, burgers, or omelets. You can also blend an avocado into your morning smoothie, add it to your favorite hummus recipe or mash it on your toast.

Of course, there is also guacamole, which can be made with a wide variety of ingredients to make it sweet, spicy or tangy.

While there are lots of guacamole recipes that can be easily found online, here is a basic one to get you started. From here, you can experiment with adding other ingredients, such as tomatoes, mangoes, garlic, or chilis.

Basic Guacamole Recipe

2 – 3 ripe avocados (halved, pitted, peeled, and cubed)
1 small onion (diced)
Juice of one lime
Salt and pepper to taste

Mix the ingredients together in a bowl and serve with tortilla chips or crudité.

If you prefer your guacamole to be more like a salsa, cut your avocado into small cubes. If you prefer guacamole dip, lightly mash your avocado as you mix in the other ingredients. You can serve it right away, or you can chill it in the refrigerator for a short time (no more than one hour) before serving.

The post How to Plant and Grow an Avocado Tree appeared first on INSTALL-IT-DIRECT.

This makes citrus varieties an easy choice if you are interested in including fruit trees in your garden or backyard.

How to Plant and Grow Citrus Fruits: Getting Started

One of the first steps you will take when growing citrus trees is tree selection. Once established and producing at full capacity, a single tree will easily provide enough fruit for an average-sized family. So, unless you really love a particular type of fruit, you likely only need one of each variety in your family orchard. Most citrus trees are self-pollinating, so having only one does not affect fruit production.

If you are growing standard (full-size) trees, keep in mind that the average backyard can only accommodate about two fruit trees of this size. If you prefer a larger variety of citrus fruits, you may want to consider planting dwarf or semi-dwarf trees. This will allow you to include more trees in your garden and will make the fruits easier to harvest, since the trees will be shorter.

You will want to select a sunny spot that is protected from wind. Once you have determined a spot where your trees will get full sun, you will need to measure the area to see how many trees will fit. Standard-size trees will need to be planted a minimum of 12 feet apart but may require even more distance, depending on the variety. Dwarf and semi-dwarf trees can usually be planted between six and 10 feet apart.

Once you have determined how many trees will fit in your backyard orchard, the next step is determining the varieties you will plant. Orange, lemon and lime trees are the citrus trees most often found growing in Southern California backyards, but you can also grow grapefruits, kumquats, tangerines, tangelos, pomelos, Buddha’s hand, and more. If you are not sure which citrus trees will do best where you live, visit a local nursery close to your home for advice and trees that thrive in the local climate.

Growing citrus trees requires patience. You are going to put in at least a few years of care and maintenance before your trees will begin to produce larger harvests with better fruit. You will, of course, get some fruits along the way, but do not expect to see significant crops until the tree is about seven years old and, in some cases, you may have to wait until the tree is 10 to 15 years old. If growing from seeds, you can expect to wait a full seven years (at least). If you are transplanting trees purchased at a local nursery, you will probably only have to wait three to five years. In the meantime, enjoy the smaller crops your tree starts to bear when it is between three and five years old while you work on creating a healthy, happy family orchard.

How to Plant Citrus Trees

You can grow citrus trees in the ground or in containers, but the containers have to be rather large for your trees to thrive. While you can start your young trees in smaller containers, you will ultimately need pots that are at least 20 gallons in size to accommodate your trees as they mature.

If you are planting a lemon tree or other citrus varieties in the San Diego area or other parts of Southern California, you can technically plant them any time of the year. However, it is best to plant them in spring or fall with spring being the better choice of the two. Planting in spring allows your tree to begin to take root before the heat of summer and allows it to become more established and acclimated before the colder winter weather.

When you transplant a tree in summer, the air is too hot. When you transplant a tree in winter, the soil is too cold. So, it is better to avoid both of these situations and stick with spring or fall planting when there is a better balance of warm soil and cooler air.

Amending the soil before planting citrus trees is generally not recommended. However, citrus trees prefer well-draining soil, and if you are working with the heavy, clay soil common in and around San Diego, you may not have a choice. Mixing compost into clay soil before planting citrus trees can improve the soil quality for better drainage and looser soil that allows for easier root growth.

Growing Citrus Trees from Seed

As mentioned above, fruit trees grown from seed will take at least seven years to begin really producing fruit. This is why most home gardeners purchase trees from a nearby nursery to transplant into their gardens. But, just in case you do want to know to plant orange seeds to start your orchard, we will cover that here.

Citrus trees can be started indoors, much like you might with other food plants for your garden. You can purchase citrus seeds, but there is no need to, since you can simply harvest seeds from a fruit you purchase at a farmers market or that grew on your friend’s tree. To acquire the seeds, simply cut the fruit and remove the desired number of seeds.

There are two common ways you can start the seeds to later transfer to your garden.

The first way to start seeds is to place the harvested seeds in a bowl of water overnight. After soaking them, push each seed about ½ inch into the soil in seed-starting pots. Cover the pots with plastic and place them on or near a window where it is warm and sunny. After a few weeks, you will begin to see growth but they will not yet be ready for the garden. At this time, take off the plastic covering and keep the pots in the same sunny, warm spot in your house. You will know it is time to move your seedlings to larger pots when you begin to see roots growing through the drainage holes in the bottom of the pot or when you pop one of out the container and see that the root system has filled the pot.

If you prefer an even simpler method and do not mind waiting a few extra weeks for germination, you can also place seeds in soil right after you rinse them and can leave them uncovered (no plastic covering the pots).

The second, common way to start citrus trees from seeds is to remove seeds from the fruit, rinse the seeds, wrap them in a damp paper towel, place them in a plastic bag, and place that plastic bag inside a plastic or glass food container that can act as a greenhouse to foster germination. You will need to check the paper towel regularly to make sure it stays damp and to look for signs of growth. Once you see a root and seedling developing, gently place each seedling into a pot with soil.

Either way you start your seeds, you will need to water them daily for the first few weeks once they are in soil. You will also need to continue transplanting them to larger containers each time their root systems outgrow the pots they are in. When it is time to transplant your new trees into your garden, remember that it is best to do so in spring or fall.

Planting Citrus Trees

While some folks do want to know how to plant orange seeds, most home gardeners purchase one-year-old to three-year-old trees from local nurseries to transplant into their gardens. This is generally considered much easier and will give you a jumpstart on your orchard, which means you will enjoy fruit from your trees years earlier than if you had started them from seed.

When planting a lemon tree, orange tree or other type of citrus, the first step is digging a hole that is as deep as the container it is in and about twice as wide. Next, you will gently remove the tree from the pot it came in and remove any packaging from the tree. Place the tree in the hole and begin to backfill the hole around the tree. When the hole around the tree is about three-quarters filled, soak the soil. Allow the water to drain a bit before filling the rest of the hole with soil, and then watering thoroughly once again.

How to Grow Citrus Fruits: Care and Maintenance

Protecting Young Trees from the Sun

Citrus trees thrive in locations that receive full sun, but their trunks may need protection from the sun for the first few years. To protect the trunks, you can paint them with white latex paint diluted with water or wrap them in newspaper. You will only need to do this until the canopies of the trees have developed enough to provide shade to the trunk.

Watering Citrus Trees

Younger trees will need to be watered at least once per week and may need more frequent irrigation in times of drought or in the hotter months of summer. Irrigation should be slow and deep, so if you are watering by hand, set the hose to produce a trickle of water a foot or two away from the trunk and leave it on each tree for at least about an hour. Both the shallow feeder roots and the deeper root system need water, so this slow, deep watering is necessary for citrus tree health.

If you are installing automatic irrigation, you can run a drip line in concentric circles starting about a foot away from the trunk and expanding almost to the edge of the canopy for each tree. This will allow more of the root system to access the water. If you are using automatic irrigation, install a rain sensor, which will shut off the system after rain and will help you conserve water.

Fertilizing Citrus Trees

Fertilizing your citrus trees will help keep your trees healthy and generally leads to larger harvests. If you plan on fertilizing just once each year, then do so in late winter or early spring during the growing season. This is when the trees are preparing to bloom and could use the extra boost in nutrients. If you have a bit more time to dedicate to citrus tree care throughout the year, you can divide the recommended amount of fertilizer to distribute it three times a year: late winter/early spring, early summer and late summer.

Your best option for citrus tree fertilizer is to purchase bags of organic citrus and avocado food from your local nursery. Follow the instructions on the package to determine how much fertilizer to give each tree. This is generally based on the diameter of the truck of your citrus trees. Citrus trees grown in pots require less fertilizer than those planted in the ground. Therefore, if the fertilizer package only lists amounts for trees grown in the ground, cut that amount in half for any citrus trees growing in pots.

To continually add nutrients to the soil and improve soil structure, you will also want to add a layer of compost around your citrus trees about four times per year. Spread a two-inch layer of compost around each tree while making sure to keep the compost a several inches away from the trunk to avoid damage.

Pruning Citrus Trees

It is best to prune citrus trees in late winter or spring after harvest and before you see buds begin to form. Focus on removing damaged or unhealthy branches, cutting back branches that are close to structures, and removing new growth in undesirable places, such as suckers low on the trunk. Minimize the removal of healthy branches and foliage and never remove more than one-third of a tree per year.

There are some cases where older citrus trees can benefit from heavy pruning. If you have older trees that are producing less than they used to, it might be worth having a professional tree trimmer assess the tree and perform heavy pruning. Keep in mind that this type of pruning will reduce fruit production for at least a couple of years while your tree recovers.

How to Grow Citrus Fruits: Pest Control

There are all sorts of critters that might try to get in the way of successfully growing citrus trees. Fortunately, most of them are relatively easy to deal with and can even be managed with home remedies.

If you are growing citrus in California, you need to be particularly wary of Asian citrus psyllid. You may not notice these tiny insects on your trees, but they can cause big problems and are currently threatening orchards across the state. Asian citrus psyllids bring with them the devasting Huanglongbing disease, which will kill your tree once infected. If you have a tree with Huanglongbing, it must be removed to protect other citrus trees in the area. Visit the California Citrus Pest & Disease Prevention Program to learn more about detecting Asian citrus psyllids on your tree, and call the California pest hotline at (800) 491-1899 if you suspect an infestation in your backyard garden.

Some of the other pests that may affect your trees are leafminers, aphids, citrus rust mites, thrips, scales, and snails. Many citrus tree pests can be thwarted with natural horticultural oils and insecticidal soaps. You can purchase these products at your local nursery or you can make your own. A simple insecticidal soap you can make at home to control thrips, mites and aphids consists of just two ingredients you already have: dish soap and water. Mix about two tablespoons per gallon of water, pour the mixture into a spray bottle or garden sprayer, and spray on the leaves of your trees.

For snails, one natural option is to wrap copper tape around the trunk of each tree. The chemical reaction that occurs between their slime and the copper causes them discomfort, so most snails and slugs will stay away.

You may also have issues with rats nesting in your trees or eating your fruit. The best way to avoid this naturally is to make sure branches are trimmed away from fences and structures to limit access and to wrap metal sheeting around the trunks of the trees so they cannot climb them.

How to Harvest Citrus Fruits

Different varieties of citrus fruits have different tips for when it is best to harvest them. So, if you are growing citrus fruits that are not mentioned here, do a little research to determine when they are ready for harvest. Since lemons, limes and oranges are the most common citrus fruits grown in backyard gardens in Southern California, we will cover those here.

Harvesting Limes

Limes are harvested before they ripen but should be kept on the tree until needed, since they will stop ripening once picked. When limes are fully ripened, they are yellow, but, by this time, they will have developed a bitter taste and are best discarded or added to the compost pile. The best time to pick limes is when they are light green or just starting to turn yellow in spots. You want to look for smooth skin and squeeze them very gently to see if they feel hard or just a little soft. The soft ones are ready to harvest and will give the most juice.

To harvest your limes, gently twist the fruit to remove it without damaging the tree. For taller trees, you can either use a ladder or a long-handled fruit picker to harvest limes.

Harvesting Lemons

Lemons should also be gently removed by twisting the fruit off of the stem or with a fruit picker, if you have taller trees. In San Diego and throughout Southern California, your lemon trees should produce fruit throughout the year, but when you see a lemon begin to develop on the tree, know that it will be several months before it will be ready to harvest. You will know it is the best time to pick lemons when they are greenish-yellow or yellow and the skin looks a little glossy.

Harvesting Oranges

What time of year you will be harvesting your oranges depends on the variety. For example, you might be picking your Valencias from late spring into fall, while your Navels are more likely to be ready to harvest from mid-winter to early summer. Your oranges may be fully orange when it is time to harvest, or they may be greenish-orange. Either one is fine. The important thing to note with oranges is that they get their color before they get their sweetness, so you will want to leave them on the tree as long as possible. This is also a good way to have fresh oranges available for a longer period of time, since you can just pick what you need and leave the rest on the tree to harvest later.

You will likely also find that ripe oranges fall from the tree when they are ready, so you can easily harvest your crop by simply gathering them off the ground. When gathering ripe oranges that have fallen from the tree, be sure to look for damage. Any oranges that have split skin or look like they have been partially eaten by bugs or critters should not be eaten.

When picking oranges from the tree, twist the fruit to detach the stem from the tree. For taller trees, use a ladder or a fruit picker to gently remove the fruit.

How to Store Citrus Fruits

Citrus fruits can be stored in the refrigerator or at room temperature. They will last longer if stored in a drawer in your refrigerator, but they will taste better and be juicier when eaten at room temperature. Therefore, if you plan on eating your fruit within a few days, you can store it on the counter. If you want it to stay fresh longer, store it in the refrigerator, and then remove it and set it out to come to room temperature before eating it.

The post How to Plant and Grow Citrus Fruits appeared first on INSTALL-IT-DIRECT.

There is plenty of evidence that juicing can help people eat more fruits and vegetables, provide our bodies with easy-to-digest vitamins and minerals, and serve up disease-fighting and anti-aging antioxidants. We know it is best to purchase organic produce when possible, to avoid genetically modified foods and to seek out the freshest produce we can find to have the most nutrient-dense foods.

Most folks also know that buying the amount of organic produce necessary to maintain a regular juicing routine can be quite expensive and requires frequent trips to the grocery store to keep your refrigerator stocked without losing produce to spoilage.

Knowing all of this, some people choose to grow at least part of their juicing ingredients right at home to make juicing more convenient and less expensive. Regular juicing requires a lot of produce, so it is important to note that most people most likely do not have the space or time to meet all of their juicing needs with food from their backyard garden.

However, if you can cut down a bit on your grocery bill and save yourself at least a few trips to the store, you will likely find that it is well worth it to grow at least some of your juicing ingredients at home. Growing some of your own food also allows you to know exactly where that food came from, what was used to grow it and that it is as fresh as possible when it comes from just a few feet away from your kitchen.

While you may not be able to meet all of your produce needs, a backyard juicing garden is a great way to supplement the fruits, vegetables and herbs you currently buy at the farmers’ market, produce stand or local grocery store. Plus, it is quite handy to be able to throw a quick juice together with some spinach, tomatoes and parsley from your garden when you have not had time to go the market.

The more room and time you have, the more produce you can grow, but folks with limited space should not be dissuaded from installing at least a small potager. You can grow a small space juicing garden in containers on your patio, in a raised garden bed or in a plot that is no larger than 10 square feet in size.

If your garden space is limited, you will need to pick just a few favorites to include. Here are nine options to consider that you can use in either an extraction juicer or blender to make fresh juices.

Top 9 Foods to Grow in Small Space Juicing Garden

1. Basil: This aromatic herb is easy to grow and adds great flavor to juicing recipes. It is high in vitamin K and has historically been used for its anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties. Basil prefers moist, well-draining soil in a sunny spot in your garden. It is easy to tell if you are not watering your basil plants enough, since the leaves will noticeably droop and wilt.

2. Parsley: Parsley takes a while to get going, but once it is established and going strong, it can provide you with plenty of parsley for your juicing needs. While it does not add as much flavor to your juice as basil does, it is packed with nutrients. This includes vitamin K, vitamin C, iron, folate and vitamin A. Historically, parsley has been used for detoxing the liver, reducing the risk of developing cancer or diabetes, and freshening breath.

3. Tomatoes: Tomatoes are just so easy to grow that any backyard garden should have at least one tomato plant. Tomatoes are a great base for lots of simple juicing recipes and have plenty of other culinary uses. They offer a variety of vitamins and minerals — such as vitamin C, vitamin K, vitamin A and copper — and are rich in lycopene, which has been linked to reducing the risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease.

4. Kale: Dark, leafy greens are a great addition to fresh juices. Kale can be easily started from seed indoors or right in your garden. If you prefer starting from seedlings, your local garden center is sure to have plenty in stock during the best times to plant it in your area. Many long-time juicing enthusiasts believe dark, leafy greens are among the most important and beneficial ingredients to include when juicing.

5. Spinach: This is another dark, leafy green that is easy to grow in your juicing garden. Spinach plants can be quite prolific and allow you to take just what you need, and then come back for more as they keep producing more leaves. Spinach plants like nutrient-rich, well-draining soil and grows as an annual. To extend your harvest, try planting in cycles about 10-14 days apart.

6. Carrots: If you are maximizing a small space for your juicing garden, carrots are a great option for growing around the perimeter with your taller plants — like tomatoes or cucumbers — planted in the middle of the bed. Since these are root vegetables that grow deep, be sure to till your soil deeper than you would for most plants. This will provide your carrots with loose soil in which to grow. This is another crop where you can spread out planting days to extend your harvest.

Carrots add lots of nutrients and flavor to fresh juices and are a staple in juicing, so this is one vegetable you should definitely consider growing in your juicing garden. While most of us are used to seeing and growing orange carrots, you can also grow other colors to make your juicing more fun, such as purple, red, yellow or white.

7. Swiss Chard: Chard is easy to grow, does well in Southern California’s warmer climate and is a good source of fiber, vitamin K, potassium, magnesium, vitamin A, vitamin C and more. It is believed to be helpful in preventing diabetes and in treating it naturally through diet. It is also known for its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant qualities. When you are not in the mood for fresh juice, it is also a great addition to salads and can be sautéed as a healthy side dish. This is another plant that allows you to take what you need and will continue to grow new leaves for futures juices.

8. Beets: Like carrots, beets like soil that has been deeply tilled to provide loose, well-draining soil in which to grow. Beets like full sun, so pick a sunny spot in your garden to grow this one. Juicing enthusiasts generally choose this earthy root vegetable for its high vitamin C, vitamin A, potassium, manganese and fiber.

9. Cucumbers: You can grow cucumbers in containers, in a raised garden bed or in the ground. You will want to support this trailing vine with a tomato cage, stakes or trellis. Cucumbers can be a bit trickier to grow than the other options in this list, but it is well worth a bit of trial and error to have fresh cucumbers to include in juices. Cucumbers make particularly refreshing juices and add vitamin K, B vitamins, potassium, copper and fiber.

Growing a Small Space Juicing Garden: Further Reading

• Free Fertilizer for Flowerbeds + Vegetable Gardens + Natural Lawns {PRO Guide}
• How to Find Free Seeds for Your Backyard Garden
• Vegetable Garden 101: TOP 10 Gardening Mistakes to Avoid
• 20 Tips for How to Maintain a Healthy, Attractive Vegetable Garden

Photo Credits (in order of appearance): morgueFile, Seemann; morgueFile, lisasolonynko; morgueFile, eliaszltd; morgueFile, MaxStraeten; morgueFile, svklimkin

The post Top 9 Foods to Grow in a Small Space For a Juicing Garden appeared first on INSTALL-IT-DIRECT.

Carving Halloween pumpkins into jack-o’-lanterns is a long-held tradition that is fun for all ages. Part of that fun is heading to the local pumpkin patch to pick the perfect pumpkins for your Halloween decor, but imagine how much more fun it might be to grow pumpkins in your own patch right in your backyard.

June is the ideal time to plant most Halloween pumpkins in California, so you will want to make sure you have most varieties in the ground by the end of June. Most varieties take between 90 and 120 days to go from planted seed to mature pumpkins that are ready to harvest. Larger varieties and heirloom varieties are generally at the upper end of that time line. You can find out the days to maturity by checking your seed packet, which will help you determine precisely when to plant them.

Before you start planting, you will need to choose the type of pumpkin you want to grow, so here is information on popular pumpkin varieties, unique pumpkin varieties and giant pumpkin varieties to help get your started.

How to Choose Halloween Pumpkins to Grow

Before you can plant your pumpkins in your backyard garden, you — of course — first have to decide which type of this winter squash you would like to grow. Since most varieties are relatively easy to grow, your choice will likely be determined by these four basic questions:

1. What do you want to do with your pumpkins?

Do you want to eat them? Use them in a decorative centerpiece? Paint them for fall porch decor? Make a pie? Enter a contest?

Which type of pumpkin you should grow will depend on how you answer this question. While even a giant pumpkin-growing contest winner can be eaten, there are certain varieties that are better for cooking and canning, some that are better for carving into jack-o’-lanterns and some that are best for decorations. Of course, there are also some varieties that can easily do double duty. For example, some of the smallest pumpkin varieties are great for both fall decorations and for making pies.

2. How much room do you have?

Pumpkin vines can grow up to 40 feet in length, and if you are planning on growing a Prizewinner or another large variety, you may have some rather large Halloween pumpkins weighing 100 or 200 pounds. So you can see why you could potentially need a lot of room for your pumpkin patch. However, there are some very small varieties that can be grown in a container with a trellis on your patio. So any amount of space will work for growing pumpkins, you just need to figure out how much space you want to dedicate to your pumpkin patch before buying seeds. Also keep in mind that the space you choose for your pumpkins should receive full sun.

3. How much time do you have?

If you are starting to plant your pumpkin patch any later than about mid-July, you are going to have to settle for smaller pumpkin varieties in order to be sure you will have usable pumpkins by Halloween. If you are planting in late-May to early-June (ideal pumpkin planting time), then you can pick a larger variety or try your hand at growing giant pumpkins. Keep in mind that the seed packets will state how many days to maturity for that variety, so you can just count backwards from Halloween to make sure you have enough time to grow that variety.

4. How much effort are you willing to put in to finding seeds?

If your interest in seed hunting maxes out at heading to your local garden center and grabbing a couple of packets, then you will have to settle for whatever they happen to have in the seed rack. Most garden centers and home improvement stores only carry a couple of types of pumpkin seeds, so you may find yourself choosing between polar opposites like Sugar Pie and Big Max with no options in between. If you are willing to spend a little time browsing seed catalogs, surfing the sites of online seed sellers or joining a gardening forum, your options will greatly expand, and you will probably be able to find just about any type of pumpkin seed your heart desires. If you are willing to commit to doing some serious research, you can find seeds from specific genetic lines — or even specific pumpkins — and get your hands on the seeds that really could help you win your local pumpkin-growing context with a giant pumpkin weighing in at well over 1,000 pounds.

Popular Halloween Pumpkins

Most of us head to the pumpkin patch, pick out some pumpkins, take them home and carve them without giving much thought to what kind of pumpkins they are. Most likely, you have been bringing home either Howdens or Connecticut Fields, since these are definitely the two most popular Halloween pumpkins for carving and usually what you find in commercial pumpkin patches.

But now that you are going to try your hand at growing pumpkins at home, you have more options. Here are some of the most popular pumpkins for you to consider:

1. Howden – Howden pumpkins are one of the most popular carving pumpkins and are ideal for making jack-o’-lanterns. You can expect them to grow to about 20 pounds, but know that they can weigh more than 50 pounds at maturity. You can expect it to take about 115 days for them to go from seed to mature pumpkin ready for picking, and you will likely get four or five pumpkins from each of your vines.

2. Connecticut Field – This is the other one you have probably seen a hundred times in pumpkin patches and grocery store bins right before Halloween. This type of pumpkin grows to about 20 pounds, takes about 120 days to mature and is a great choice for carving jack-o’-lanterns. On a side note, this variety is also good for canning.

3. Jack-O’-Lantern – This variety can be used for cooking and baking, but it is best known as being a perfect choice for carving. It comes in at a nice size that ranges from around seven pounds to around 15 pounds with most coming in a bit under 10 pounds. This makes this variety a little easier to handle. This variety has vines that only grow to about eight to 10 feet long, which makes it a nice choice for backyard gardens. Another perk with this variety is that it only takes about 100 days to go from seed to mature, so if you are starting late, this might be your best choice.

4. Cinderella – Due to their deep ribs and unique shape, Cinderellas are not ideal for carving, but they are great for using for fall decorations and you can turn them into pies after Halloween. Cinderellas can be large — up to 35 pounds — and they take about 100 days to mature. The shorter time to mature makes this another good choice if you are planting Halloween pumpkins a bit late this year.

5. Jack Be Little – This is one of many tiny varieties of pumpkins. Coming in at just two or three inches in diameter, these little squashes are not that great for eating, but they are perfect for use as decoration. They are easy to grow and take much less space than larger pumpkin varieties. These have deeper ribs and are a little squat, so they are not great for carving, but you will not want to after you see how cute they look just left alone as a centerpiece or in a basket.

6. Wee Be Little – Like their deep-ribbed counterparts, Jack Be Littles, Wee Be Littles are tiny pumpkins that are easy to grow and take up much less space than larger varieties. Unlike Jack Be Littles, Wee Be Littles have smoother skin and are perfect for carving tiny jack-o’-lanterns. These little Halloween pumpkins are usually about three to five inches in diameter and are great for kids, since they are much smaller and lighter, which makes them easier to hold for painting or carving (with adult supervision).

7. Sugar Pie – Sugar Pies are versatile pumpkins that can be used for both carving and cooking. They are usually about six to seven pounds at maturity, which takes about 100 to 110 days. They are small enough to be easy to handle for carving and Halloween crafts and are very popular for making pumpkin pies.

Unique Halloween Pumpkins

If you want to expand your pumpkin-growing horizons beyond the popular choices listed above, there are many unusual Halloween pumpkin varieties from which to choose. Here are just a few to consider:

1. Baby Boo – Just as cute as the name, Baby Boos are miniature pumpkins that are only about three inches in diameter. They have deeper ribs than some other choices, so they are not great for carving, but their bright white skin make them a very fun choice for Halloween decorations and crafts.

2. Casper – Caspers are also white, but they have smoother skin and are larger than Baby Boos. This makes them a good choice for carving, painting or crafts. As an added bonus, Caspers are also good for baking into pumpkin pies. These get to be about 15 pounds and take about 115 days to mature.

3. Jarrahdale – If a white pumpkin just is not unique enough for you, you might be interested in this blue variety. This variety comes in a nice size that ranges from between about six pounds and 10 pounds and takes about 110 days to mature. Their blue color makes them a unique choice for decorating, but they can also be used for cooking or baking.

4. Red Warty (aka Red Warty Thing) – Just like the name implies, this variety has reddish skin that is covered in bumps. They grow to about 20 pounds and take about 110 days to go from seed to mature pumpkin. They can be eaten, but if you really want a unique jack-o’-lantern this year, you might want to use this one for carving and decoration.

5. Peanut – A bit like the Red Warty, Peanut pumpkins are covered in bumpy growths that give it a very unique and kind of creepy look. Because of this, they are a great choice for Halloween decorations, but they can also be eaten. Peanut pumpkins grow to about 10 to 12 pounds and take about 100 to 105 days to mature.

If you would like to try something even more unique this Halloween, you might consider opting for jack-o’-lanterns carved from turnips or rutabagas. While this is nearly unheard of in the United States, these vegetables are far more commonly used in other countries when it comes time to carve jack-o’-lanterns to scare the demons away.

Giant Halloween Pumpkins

When it comes to giant pumpkins, the ones you hear about most are Atlantic Giant and Prizewinner. Atlantic Giants are the truly huge pumpkins that always win the pumpkin growing contests and can grow to more than 1,500 pounds. Prizewinners are considerably smaller and weigh in at about 200 pounds, which makes them a better option for most folks considering growing giant Halloween pumpkins in their backyard gardens.

Here are three options you can consider:

1. Atlantic Giant – Most of these huge pumpkins weigh in at around 300 to 400 pounds, but they can grow considerably larger in ideal conditions and under the care of a skilled gardener. They take between 110 and 130 days to mature and can be grown in a backyard garden. However, unless you are planning on partaking in a little competition gardening this year or going for a giant pumpkin record, you are probably better off going with Prizewinner or Big Max.

2. Prizewinner – Prizewinners are pretty pumpkins that grow to around 200 pounds. They are easier to grow and can even be eaten, but the vines can grow to about 40 feet in length. That can be a lot of vine for a small backyard, so be sure you have the room before planting this giant pumpkin variety.

3. Big Max – Big Max pumpkins take about 110 to 120 days to reach maturity and average about 100 pounds when fully grown. They are a good choice if you want some very large pumpkins to use as Halloween decorations and can also be used for canning or for baking. Big Max seeds are generally easier to come by than other giant pumpkin options, but you can purchase any of the three online.

Your Turn…

What are your favorite Halloween pumpkins to grow in your backyard garden?

Photo Credits (in order of appearance): Wikimedia Commons/Martin Doege; morgueFile, pippalou; Wikimedia Commons/Visitor 7; Wikimedia Commons/Frenchtowner; morgueFile, 5demayo; morgueFile, arien; morgueFile, Qedem1611; Wikimedia Commons/MamaGeek

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To create the first impression you want people to have and increase your home’s curb appeal, consider these 14 front yard landscaping ideas.

How Do I Style My Front Yard for Landscaping? 

Your front yard is an opportunity to welcome people into a warm, inviting space. Curating the outdoor space from the curb to your front door creates curb appeal, which enhances visual appeal and increases property value. Good landscaping design complements your home’s architectural style, size, and building materials while showing off your style. 

Easy & Low-Budget Front Yard Landscaping Ideas 

Front yard landscaping can be costly, but there are budget-friendly DIY options that will add beauty to your yard. 

1. Try gravel

Gravel is an affordable ground cover that requires no water and helps inhibit weed growth, allowing rainwater to filter through the soil. This low-maintenance hardscape comes in various sizes and colors, so finding an option that fits your landscaping is easy. Using gravel is a great way to cover bare earth, create an inexpensive guest parking area, or increase home security by placing it so you can hear people or wildlife approaching your home.

2. Use mulch

Like gravel, mulch is an affordable ground cover that inhibits weed growth, quickly and easily covers bare earth, and does not require water. One of the main reasons you might choose mulch over gravel is that mulch offers a softer, warmer look. It depends on how you plan to use the area and what your overall goals are for your front-of-house landscaping.

3. Add a seating area

Your backyard is not the only spot for an outdoor living area to entertain friends or have breakfast with your family. If you have the space, add a seating area to your front porch to wave to neighbors while enjoying your morning coffee or greet your guests when they arrive. 

Taking Your Front Yard Landscaping to the Next Level 

If you’re a homeowner looking to invest in a more significant change, consider these mid-tier design ideas to increase your home’s curb appeal.

4. Grow a food garden

Vegetable gardens are usually part of the backyard landscaping but consider incorporating food garden design in your front yard. If you are concerned about keeping a front yard garden looking tidy, choose plants that look more ornamental, such as lettuces or herbs.

5. Plant fruit trees

Consider planting fruit trees in your front yard. Fruit trees are a great way to add shade, color, and visual interest while also growing fruits for your family and friends.

6. Plant an island flower bed

Island flower beds serve a variety of purposes. First and foremost, they are perfect for adding a pop of color, particularly if your yard is mostly one color, like a green lawn or a gravel driveway. 

If you have a no- or low-water landscape for water conservation but would like to give your yard a bit of life and a softer texture among hardscapes, an island flower bed is a great way to create just a small area that requires regular watering. Check out our article with 30 flower bed ideas for more ways to incorporate flower beds into landscaping.

7. Plant a rose garden

There is nothing quite like a rose garden to brighten your home’s exterior. Monochromatic, dichromatic, or as colorful as a rainbow, a garden bed of roses is a great way to add height, texture, and color to your landscape design.

8. Plant native plants on or near your curb

The sidewalk in front of your house is most likely a right-of-way easement. The narrow strip of land between the sidewalk and street is probably a utility easement you cannot block and need to keep for utility company access. 

This does not mean you should neglect these areas when landscaping your front yard. Curbside easements are a great spot to plant native plants, a cutting garden, or pollinators. Consider drought-tolerant ground cover, succulents, gravel, mulch, or synthetic grass for a low-maintenance option.

9. Employ colorful borders

Another way to quickly add color to your yard is to plant colorful borders or a picket fence along your home’s exterior. When designing these borders, choose low-maintenance plants. If opting for flowers, perennials like hydrangeas, lavender, and azaleas will return year after year, while annuals will require replanting. 

Plants with colorful blooms bring great texture and vibrance to a front yard garden design, making this an easy, quick way to enhance curb appeal.

10. Hide your trash cans

Most cities now have a three-bin refuse, recycling, and yard waste system. While this is progress for the environment and helps us easily do our part, it also means that we must figure out where to put three waste bins.

It’s ideal to store bins in an accessible, inconspicuous place that does not detract from your home’s curb appeal. Keep your bins out of sight by investing in an enclosure or designing your landscape to create a privacy screen.

Luxury Front Yard Landscaping Ideas

These luxury landscaping ideas can make a significant impact on your curb appeal. Luxury design projects typically require special skills, so you’ll want to hire a professional to ensure they are high quality. 

11. Leverage landscape lighting

Outdoor lighting is an essential part of landscape design and can transform the look of your home after dark. Illuminating entries and dark corners improves home security while lighting driveways, stairs, and walkways increases your family’s and guests’ safety.

Landscape lighting is also one of the easiest ways to accentuate architectural features or interesting landscaping features. Whether you add a few lights around your yard or an entirely new landscape lighting design, upgrading your outdoor lighting will increase your curb appeal. 

12. Add a paving stone driveway or walkway

If you want to make an immediate, significant improvement to your front yard, upgrade to a pattern paver driveway or walkway. Paving stones are available in various colors and styles, so you can find an attractive option to complement any architectural style. Pavers allow you to express your personal style and have unparalleled durability and longevity.

Learn more about paver driveway design here or get an estimate for your project here.

13. Install artificial turf

Landscape design for Southern California front yards is moving away from conventional lawns towards more water-saving options that offer plenty of color and texture without the upkeep of a natural grass lawn. 

If you like the look of a lawn but want a low-water, low-maintenance option, artificial turf offers the same look, feel, and function as natural grass, but requires no mowing, edging, irrigation, fertilizing, or aerating.

14. Add a water feature

A water feature provides a visual focal point to your yard. Bird baths are great additions that charm gardens or small front yards. If you want to create a grand entryway into your home, tiered fountains look elegant. 

Improve Curb Appeal When You Hire the Landscapers at Install-It-Direct!

Our experienced landscaping designers can help design a beautiful, functional front yard that improves curb appeal. Get a free estimate to start planning a front yard you love that increases your home’s curb appeal. 

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