‘Hugelkultur Building Workshop’ Sunday March 19th 12-3pm at Ploughshares Nursery 2701 Main St. Alameda CA 510 755 1102 Tickets are $5.00 Do you ever feel ridiculous paying to have your tree trimmings hauled away?  Learn to instead put them to good use in your garden.   Hugelkulture (literally “mound culture” in German) is a time-tested method…

“Oh excellent, I love long life better than figs”! Five gallon container figs are on sale, buy one and get a second fig for free! Get two five gallon fig trees for $34.99! Figs love our climate, they can be shaped and pruned to fit any garden and the fruit is as expensive as heck…

STILL TIME FOR VEGETABLE STARTS BEGGING FOR THE LAST PART OF COOL WEATHER~! (plant now and harvest late spring) 4″ pots Jersey Knight Asparagus 6 packs Purple Peacock Broccoli 6 packs Early Wonder Beets 6 packs Giant Mustard 6 packs Romaine Lettuce 6 packs Speckled Romaine Lettuce 6 packs Speckled Bibb Lettuce 6 packs Cauliflower…

Wow this is a lot of rain, I hope people are keeping an eye on potted succulents and moving them under shelter or covering them to keep them from becoming over-saturated and rotting out. This is a good time to examine areas of the garden for standing water and observe which plants are growing there,…

Snowberry is our pick for California Heritage Plant 2017 Symphoricarpos albus  is common throughout most of the American North West.  This thicket forming native grows 3-6ft. wide and high spreading via rhizomes.  Pink flowers appear late Spring and early Summer giving way to white berries.  The berries contain saponins which have mild toxicity and many…

Big Jim Loquat is our pick for Unusual Edible February 2017 Eriobotrya japonica ‘Big Jim’ Loquats originated in China and were introduced  in Japan 1000 years ago during the T’ang dynasty.  Chinese migrant workers carried Loquat seed everywhere they went and it easily naturalized in moderate and tropical climates.  The fruit is 30% seed and…

G&B ORGANICS NATIVE PLANTING MIX is ideal for western region landscapes that require less water. Specially blended to provide an excellent balance between moisture retention and drainage, NATIVE PLANTING MIX provides an organic alternative to plant-less “rock-scapes” or artificial turf. The organic materials in NATIVE PLANTING MIX help build life back into soils that have…

‘Gardening 101: Everything you Need to Know as a Beginning Gardener’ February 11th 2-4pm at: Ability Now Bay Area 4500 Lincoln Ave Oakland, CA 94602 Learn how to grow edible and ornamental plants from seed and cuttings with Jeff Bridge of Ploughshares Nursery.  This is a hands-on workshop where we will be demonstrating techniques and…

It’s not too late to distribute California Native Wild Flower Seed, for a beautiful display of flowers which benefit local pollinators come spring! All Pacific Coast California Native seed half off during the month of January 2017.  

Hachiya Persimmon is our pick for Unusual Edible for January 2017 Diospyros kaki ‘Hachiya’ came to  North America from China, Japan, Korea and Burma in the 1800s.  The tree is deciduous, leaves drop off in Fall and fruit comes on late season.  Sometimes the leaves fall off before the fruit is done setting, making for…

Click here to visit Greywater Action’s excellent website, or watch Session 1 below:  

Saturday January 21st at 12:00 noon Ploughshares Nursery 2701 Main St. Alameda CA ‘How to Select and Plant Bare Root Trees’ Bare root trees (see list below) are sold without soil and require special care to be successful, but you can save a lot of money when you plant them! Join Ploughshare’s Jeff Bridge for…

Ploughshares will be closed December 22nd through January 3rd to celebrate the holidays and clean up our mess.  Hope to see you next year!

Mache or Valerianella locusta ‘Corn Salad’ grows wild in parts of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.  This is a nutty flavored cool season green which lays low to the ground and is easy to grow from seed. “Corn salad was originally foraged by European peasants until Jean-Baptiste de La Quintinie, royal gardener of…

Ploughshares will be closed 11-24 and 11-25 for Thanksgiving.  Thank you for your support this year, your interest in growing edibles, using plants which require less water and restoring native plants to our urban gardens makes the world a better place and keeps our doors open!  It’s been a privilege serving Alameda and the East…

Eschscholzia californica , California Poppy is our choice for Pollinator Power Plant for November 2016.   Not because poppies actually should be growing or blooming right now, but because NOW is the time to sow seed for poppies next year.  Sow seed directly, mixed in soil and sand and expect a sea of lime-green foliage and…

SAVE 50% ON ALL POTTERY THE WEEKEND OF NOVEMBER 19th, Saturday and Sunday

Thank you Vets for your service!  We will be open again Saturday November 12th at 10 a.m. Be safe on your three day weekend!