The organic approach to killing fungus is to use ordinary corn meal at a rate of 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. Use it once and follow up again 3 weeks later. You can usually find corn meal at a feed store. Your nearest feed store is not close. Usually urban areas still have down town feed stores because your county sheriff will have a mounted posse. Click here to find your nearest feed store. Call first to see if they have ordinary corn meal. There is another corn meal product that gets confused with the regular stuff. What you do not want is corn gluten meal. Another possibility to find ordinary corn meal is to find a Hispanic grocery store. They sell corn flour but sometimes it is adulterated with baking soda and baking powder to make tortillas. Get the plain corn flour in 25-pound sacks. When you apply corn meal, do the entire yard. You don't know where the fungus starts and stops. Corn is an organic fertilizer so it certainly does no harm. Also you can over apply freely without fear of hurting anything. If you apply more than your soil can decompose quickly, you will get the sour aroma of decomposing protein. That will go away, but you want to minimize that situation. The smell is the smell of ammonia disappearing. That nitrogen does more good in the soil than in the air. Next time you apply you will have to apply a lot more to get that same smell, because the population of soil microbes that decompose it will be increased. There is one more thing I would not rule out. Your photo was right by some concrete. Concrete will heat up during the day and remain warm all night. That continual warmth will evaporate more moisture from that soil next to the concrete which requires more water in those areas. Keep an eye out for that.

I love my 'Springfire's, looking forward to them getting as big as the one in your photos. The plantings look so fabulous, the house needs something to match it. The house needs some wider trim around the windows, or something, some architectural detail up higher, around the windows, just up somewheres. The gorgeous garden is outshining the house something terrible.

For whatever reason Yamagami's (in Cupertino, but not far from Sunnyvale)seems to carry a lot of P. edulis fairly late (August or September). Perhaps that's when it's easiest to get plants with flowers, buds, and fruit from the wholesalers. You should check with them and see when they will have NG and Black Knight, and make sure they special order them if they don't plan on selling them. I remember them selling both of those varieties in 1 gallon pots, as well as a couple others such as Red Rover and Frederick. Maybe Frederick was 5 gallons (?). A 5 gallon plant will probably run $40 or $50, a 1 gallon $20, so this can make a difference, particularly if you want more than one variety. Sometimes they have big sales in September where one can get 60% off. Nancy Garrison is a regular speaker there, so it makes sense that they carry that variety. It's worth getting on Yamagami's mailing list if you plan on buying things there. I've never seen Frosty anywhere. If you are trying to track down a variety possibly someone who posts on the Cloudforest Cafe would have something. I think there are more CRFG (California Rare Fruit Growers) members who post there. I have not seen that much in the way of P. edulis elsewhere in the South Bay. Frederick and I think an unnamed variety at Roger Reynold's in Menlo Park. That's about it. Even fruit is hard to find for sale--I've just seen it at Cosentino's (now gone) and the Milk Pail (Mountain View). Here is a link that might be useful: Yamagami's contact form

I live in SoCal and would suggest Yosemite book what you can now but know that Oakhurst is a good hour out of the valley Portola and Mariposa are closer. Leaving Portland I could easy spend 3 days on the road to SF and seeing SF Nights 4-5 Yosemite I would take at least two days in Yosemite to take a few short hikes and see Glacier Point, the valley and hopefully Mariposa grove (they were working on trails and had it closed last trip) Night 6 Lee Vining leaving, I would take hwy 120 over Tioga Pass. You will come out on hwy 395 and Mono Lake. That is well worth the stop as well. If you have time, plan a drive north toward Bridgeport and see Bodie State Park. An old ghost town and great place to visit the June Lake loop Night 7 mammoth Lake (cheap hotels due to off season). Take the bus to Devils Postpile Narional Park and a short hike. Driving down the 395 the short drive to Convict Lake is worth it. Rock Creek has some nice hiking and is a short side trip Bishop has some nice lakes up hwy 168 i would probably stay in either Bishop or Lone Pine stop at Mazanar HP and ask for a map at the Lone Pine Death Valley Vistors Center and check out Movie Road in the Alabama Hills since it will be hot, I would try to time my drive through Death Valley to stop in the early morning and late afternoon We usually stay at the Panamint resort but that is on the Lone Pine side other wise try Stove Pipe Wells (central) or Furnace Creek Ranch (east end) hotels in Beatty are cheap but a drive and some are dives You can get to Las Vegas from Death Valley easy Buy a National parks pass and stop at Badwater You will have seen a big variety of geological treasures and the highest and lowest points in the continuous US i have taken my boys to these places and we have enjoyed (of course we don't go in July but my Danish cousins love the heat)