Grow San Manuel

07/28/2026

07/12/2026

No meeting for Grow San Manuel in the month of July.
We will meet August.

06/16/2026

Grow San Manuel is selling 5 gallon Grow Bags $5.00 each or 2/$8.00. Find us at the San Manuel Community Center on the 3rd Thursday of every month at 6:00 pm. Let us know if you are interested, so we can bring them to the meeting.

06/16/2026

One cutting can become a whole new plant. Choose a healthy stem with nodes, root it with care, and grow more plants from what you already have.

06/07/2026

The winner of our contest for a new logo for the Grow San Manuel group is Layla from San Manuel.

We love the beautiful flowers & butterflies. Thank you Layla!

06/05/2026

Grow San Manuel will be at the San Manuel Street Market selling a variety of plants.

Saturday June 6th.
9 am - 1 pm

San Manuel Community Center
111 W 5th Ave

06/03/2026

June isn't the end of planting. It's the start of the second season.
The spring window closed, but warm soil above 70°F is exactly what beans, squash, cucumbers, and sunflowers need to germinate fast.
- Bush beans — 60 days. Sow every two weeks through July for continuous harvest into October.
- Zucchini — 50 days. June sowings often dodge the early vine borer wave that hits May transplants.
- Cucumbers — 60 days. Direct sow into warm ground. June plantings avoid the cucumber beetle peak.
- Sunflowers — 70 days. One seed, one stalk. Late August bloom extends garden color into fall.
- Fall brassicas — start indoors now. Broccoli and cabbage need the head start to mature before frost.
- Lettuce — 30 days under shade cloth. Sow every two weeks between taller crops and she won't bolt.
The chart shows the window. It's the one that closes while you think planting season is over.

06/01/2026

A single bucket, buried flush with the ground, becomes a functioning wildlife pond. Not a birdbath — a complete food web that runs itself. Cost is zero. 🌿

What shows up on its own within weeks, without any stocking or intervention:

Dragonflies arrive within days. Their larvae spend one to two years hunting underwater before emerging — while adults patrol above and take significant numbers of mosquitoes on the wing.

Native tree frogs — green tree frogs in the Southeast, gray tree frogs across the East and Midwest, Pacific tree frogs in the West — locate standing water reliably. Once they find it, they return each season and feed heavily on garden insects through the night.

American robins and other ground-feeding birds use pond water at soil level in ways they will not use an elevated birdbath. Ground-level water mimics a natural puddle — exactly what most garden wildlife is actually looking for.

Native toads (American toad, Fowler's toad, depending on your region) will use the stone ramp and breed in still water. Note: if you are in Florida or Hawaii, cane toads are an invasive species — do not encourage them.

The four things that make this work:
- A stone ramp at one edge so frogs, toads, and birds can walk in and out
- A sturdy branch angled from the bottom to the rim as an escape route for anything that falls in
- A gravel or rock layer on the bottom for aquatic insect larvae to shelter in
- A native aquatic plant — dwarf cattail, blue flag iris, or pickerelweed — for oxygen and perching 🌱

Ground-level water is what most backyard wildlife needs and almost no garden provides.