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Tips ; How to Ripe Green Tomatoes Easily and When is the best time to pick tomatoes?

I am looking for suggestions on plants that are edible for ducks, or plants that attract bugs that my ducks will eat.

This winter I will be doing quite a bit of yard maintenance: removing well-established invasive trees(Ailanthus altissima & Nerium oleander), creating a permanent pond, planting saplings, adding pavers, etc. My main project is to expand the duck coop, add the pond, and add plants that they can eat so that they require less daily maintenance. (They also like to dig for bugs in the mud and we give them duck feed aswell as vegetable scraps)

Specific Questions:

What are some perennials I can plant that will do well in the summer sun? -With the big trees gone there likely won’t be much shade to cover smaller plants, but I DO water in the dry season.

Other things I can plant that go away but come back! -We get miner’s lettuce(Claytonia perfoliata) in the winter, but obviously it does not stay for very long.

Somethings to note:

-due to the construction of levees and farms in the 19th century, the natural environment has been severely disrupted and only established trees do well in the dry season without tending.

-However my home’s elevation is like, 15ft(4.5m) and about a quarter mile(400m) from the nearest water line. And apparently the dirt in the area is a mixture of clay, sand, and soil.

-To be planted in winter/spring(somewhere):

•Blue Oak (Quercus Douglassii) sapling •Coffeeberry Tree (Frangula californica) sapling •Blue Elderberry (Sambucus nigra v. caerulea) sapling(?) •Madrone (Arbutus menziesii) sapling

Picture of current duck enclosure for reference.

Bonus tracks

-After writing all this out I did already think of one thing: the Oak tree will likely do well in the duck enclosure since many native bugs like it.

-saw two white-crowned sparrows in my yard this morning!

Hi all, i have a few annuals that have started to shrivel up and die after our first freeze. And I want to collect some to clean up the garden and also stock up my worm bin and compost pile.

Easiest way to do this is just yank it out. But then if I do that it will often disturb the soil/roots of other perennial plants. So I’m wondering what ‘best practice’ is in this case? Should I be just snipping them off and leaving the roots to decompose and re-fertilize the soil? Or is yanking them and maybe loosening the soil ‘better’ than the damage I might be doing to neighbors?