Frost Damage and Effectiveness of Clear Cups: Celery

Click here to Tweet The Rusted Garden and This ArticleAs science would have it, one cup blew off my celery during the night of the frost.  I was glad I decided to cover the celery because it is not very frost tolerant and it did get below 32 degrees. I also put cups on peas. I found that peas can...

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My Indoor Tomato Grow Station: Grow Lights

Click here to Tweet The Rusted Garden and This ArticleHere is a picture of my grow closet. The tomatoes are doing very well. It will give you an idea of size and height for placing lights in case your are interested in building your own space. Notice the lights are only a few inches above the seed trays....

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Tomatoes, Tomatoes, Tomatoes: It is Getting Close!

Click here to Tweet The Rusted Garden and This ArticleIf you haven't started your tomatoes indoors yet, don't worry. You still have time. I wouldn't wait much longer though. Here are my tomatoes I started around March19th. The pictures are from around the 26th. Everything is up now and doing nicely.Tomatoes...

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It's Not Only Birds Tweeting in the Rusted Garden Now-A-Days!

Who would have thought gardening would have taught me something about blogs? I enjoy designing and maintaining my blog and actually find it relaxing to read about HTML and all the support stuff. I didn't think gardening would teach me about tweeting. I just signed on to Twitter. I am not sure what I am going to do with it that is fun and garden related. Maybe seed give-aways. Or a way to communicate...

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KNOL: Amending Your Raised Bed Vegetable Garden Soil (Yearly!)

Transfered from my Google Knols to be stored on this blog.Raised beds are outstanding for many reasons. In this case, you can concentrate all of your resources to a bed. The peat moss and composted materials will go exactly where you want them to go and they will only be used by the planted vegetables....

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Asaparagus: Clearing Last Year's Bed and Eating This Year's Shoots

Asparagus takes about 3 years to establish itself and provide enough shoots for eating and growing. It is important you let several asparagus stems grow to maturity and thrive all Summer long. This is how your asparagus plants recharge themselves for the following year.Asparagus should be cleaned up...

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FROST!: A Few Degrees of Vegetable Frost Protections - CUPS!

Frost doesn't typically bother the cool weather vegetables. They can handle it. Perhaps you fell prey to the nice weather and put something in that can't take a light frost. Or you just want to protect your plants. Here is one method in pictures to protect your plants. The cups create a mini dome worth...

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What Do Good and Bad Tomato Seeds Look Like?

Good and Bad Tomato Seeds: Gary PilarchikThe seeds to the left are healthy looking tomato seeds collected last Summer. The tomato seeds to the right are gray and shriveled and that makes the unhealthy. Tomato seeds should look like the 'Russian Oxheart' variety I collected myself on the left. The seeds...

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What Do Onion Bunches Look Like?

Onion Bunches - The Rusted Garden: Gary PilarchikJust another way you can buy onions for planting. This is a 'bunch' also called a 'set' sometimes. They were 50 onions for $3.00. A good deal. They can be planted a 1/2 inch to an inch down in finger hol...

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What Growing On at The Rusted Garden: Potatoes

I planted a lot of potatoes last year and I got them in the ground way too late. I left a lot in the containers I planted to see what would happen over a Winter. They are sprouting now! Potatoes can be planted now and the best way to figure it out... see what Nature does in your area.March Red Potatoes...

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Planting Beets from Cell Packs: Tangled Roots

Last year I wrote that you could not start beets in cell packs. I believed they needed to be planted in the ground directly because they were a root crop and transplanting them would damage the root or beet. I decided to see for myself and planted 50 beets in the standard tray that holds the cello packs....

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Well maybe it is the economy but I have to say Bonnie is now shipping vegetables in four pack cells for $1.79 instead of the standard six pack.  This is 'Bright Lights' Swiss Chard. There is more than 4 plants in the cell pack and I know you can plant several plants in once space. It is a leafy...

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How to Plant Celery Transplants: I Guess

I thought this was cilantro when I walked by it in the nursery. It is celery. I have never grown celery before and I have never seen it for sale as a transplant. I had to buy it of course. It is part of the addiction of gardening. I did notice there are more than six plants in the cells. Some cells...

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How to Double Dig A Raised Bed: Scatter Planting Carrots

Double digging a raised bed creates a raised bed with about 2 feet of loosened soil. This is a benefit of both double digging and raised beds. Raised beds warm earlier and because you walk around them, the garden bed stays loose and doesn't compact due to foot traffic. The benefit... more vegetables...

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