Video: Build Your Raised Bed Vegetable Garden in the Fall

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The fall is a great time to redesign and or build your raised bed vegetable garden. It is a lot cooler out and that makes the work so much easier! Fall is the time to clear out spent vegetables and remove debris. It is also the best time to build and redesign. Preparing raised bed frames now and building up the soil in the fall will provide you with ready to go vegetable planting beds come the spring.

You can also plant a lot of vegetables in the fall. You can put down collard green and kales. You can plant garlic, leeks and onions. Many greens can handle hard frosts and freezing and they will start producing for you in the spring. If you have time, before heavy frosts, you can plant radishes and lettuces. If you have enough time you might even get in a round of peas.

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Video: Swiss Chard: A Spring, Summer & Fall Vegetable

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Swiss chard is a cool weather crop I plant in the spring. I have been harvesting it since late spring, through the summer and take a look at how it is doing now in the fall. It is a great greens crop that you can harvest over 3 seasons. The variety I am growing is 'Bright Lights'.

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Video: Planting Fall Garlic in Earth/Raised Beds

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Garlic is a great fall crop. In Maryland, September - early October is a great time to plant fall garlic.

You can simply plant the garlic found in your grocery store. If you have time, you can order your garlic from catalogs or online and choose from over 100 varieties.

Planting standard is about 4 inches deep but you can go a little more shallower where the winters don't deep freeze your garden.

Garlic needs a minimum of 2 weeks of 40 degree or colder weather. Garlic needs this as a natural process. The cold weather prepares it to form large bulbs come spring.

Here is my video showing you how to plant garlic in a raised bed. Fall planting is a great idea! You'll get spring greens for salads and th bulbs will come the end of spring.

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Remaking a Raised Bed Herb Garden

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I remade my 10 year old herb garden. The video shows you how overgrown it was and the process for remaking it. I built a 2x6x8 raised bed garden frame and framed in the new herb garden. Fall is a great time to redo your garden.

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How to Quickly and Easily Build A Raisded Bed Garden Frame

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The video explains it all. You can make frames for raised beds quickly, easily and cheaply. I recommend them for your garden. No better time to build them but in the fall for next season.

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Miracle-Gro and My Fall Vegetable Garden!

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Scotts Miracle-Gro for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

I don't stop gardening come fall. Fall is a great time to grow your cool weather vegetables in containers. I use moisture control Miracle-Gro for my spring and summer containers. I grow pepper and tomato plants in them. They grow wonderfully. But a full spring and summer uses up the container soil.

The old soil get tossed into my compost pile or into my earth-beds. To get ready for my fall container garden, I simply get a new bag of Miracle-Gro garden soil. It is balanced and ready to feed your growing container vegetables. Just fill the container and plant the seeds. Water, walk away and soon you will have your fall vegetable garden. Miracle-Gro makes it easy to Find beauty in the Fall.

The fall garden is the cool weather garden. You can grow peas, lettuces, spinch, greens, radishes and most other vegetables that will mature in 40-60 days. Did you know lettuces can freeze lightly and they won't die. Fall gardening is a must. Check out one of my fall garden projects. What is the recipe for growing lettuces like below? Just look for the above bag of Miracle-Grow soil for your project, get some seeds and find a container.

Step 1 Get a Container.

Step 2 Fill it with Miracle-Gro Soil

Step 3 Scatter in Lettuce seeds to 1/4 Inch Deep

Step 4 Water and Walk Away

 

 

Miracle-Gro makes fall gardening easy. Not sure what to grow in the fall?  Check out the  Miracle-Gro Facebook page. The best way to get inspired is to see what others are doing. If you like what you see on their Facebook page, give them a thumbs up and a like. I plant fall gardens every year. You really have to give it a try. This is what I ate last December from my container garden. Get a bag of Miracle-Gro garden soil and fill a container. You can have lettuce like this deep into the fall!

 

December Garden Greens: Gary Pilarchik

 

 

 

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Making Grape Juice from the Garden

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The gardening bug is coming back. I seem to always need a month off. I am in the process of redoing a lot of my garden beds and I building raised bed frames. I am preparing for next spring!

My Concord grape vines are doing really well. They have done great for years. They do have seeds and that makes them difficult to eat. So... the next best thing is grape juice. Here is the process in pictures. It works and the juice sweetens over time for some reason when refrigerated.

Concord Grapes for Juicing - The Rusted Garden

Simmer Grapes for 30 minutes - The Rusted Garden

Wash the grapes and simmer them for 30 minutes in a large pot. Concord grapes will stain although it is easily cleaned up with kitchen bleach spray. You are just letting them simmer or slowly boil. That will soften the grape for mashing them through a sieve.

30 Minutes of Simmering and Stirring - Concord Grapes

Mash Cooled Grapes Through Sieve - The Rusted Garden

Let the pot cool down and mash the grapes through a fine sieve with a rubber spatula. Grind/stir the grapes through the sieve. You will get juice and grape flesh. I prefer that in my juice. I believe it is of more nutritional value. You also have the base to make Concord grape jelly. If you don't want the piece in their it will settle in the bottle and it can be separated.

Don't use a juicer.... the juicers spray grape staining elements, project seeds out and mostly they aren't good at juicing the grape down. It wastes a lot of juice and the mess isn't worth it.

Concord Grape Juice from the Garden - The Rusted Garden

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How and Why to Plant Fall Garlic: Maryland Zone 7

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Garlic is a great garden plant because it goes in the ground when a lot of vegetables are done growing. This is more true for areas that get real winters, like my area (Zone 7). Garlic can be plant in the spring but it is best planted in the fall. What is the reason? Garlic needs to go through a cold period of 40 degrees or less as to be primed and ready to form large bulbs come spring harvest. They need about a 2 week cold period. Your refrigerator could replace cold weather.

Fall garlic should be planted in late September or October. Basically, fall planted garlic will get the cold weather and form large garlic bulbs come spring. Spring planted garlic will grow but you could end up with a smaller bulb. Either way, you can grow garlic in the fall and spring! And what else do you have growing in your garden through the winter.

Garlic should be planted about 3 inches deep and 4-6 inches apart. This depth is to provide frost protection and heaving protection during ground freezes. If your winters aren't causing major ground freezing you don't have to plant as deeply. I plant my garlic a little closer together (2 inches) because I am not after monster size bulbs. I'll never use it all. I prefer to pull it fresh. I don't even cure it typically. But if you want to get maximum size bulbs and cure your bulbs, you should plant your cloves 4-6 inches apart.

You can order garlic from catalogs or (in my case) plant garlic bought at the grocery store. There are rumors that grocery store garlic is treated to retard sprouting but that is either a myth or ineffective. I grow grocery store garlic yearly and it works without issue. To prepare your bulb for planting, simply break the bulb into individual cloves. Throw away any overly soft or damaged cloves. The clove gets planted as describe above with the root side down. If in doubt, just plant it sideways and Nature will do it's thing and it will right itself so to speak

Everyone has room for a row of garlic. Give it a try. You have a few more weeks of planting time left.

Good Gardening,
Gary

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Hot Peppers From My Garden

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My peppers are still going strong. I have made pickled peppers and dried peppers. Here are some pictures of the peppers coming out of my garden. Still going strong in September. Not bad!

Cayenne Peppers Ready for Drying - The Rusted Garden

Jalapeno Ready for Pickling - The Rusted Garden

One of My Jalapeno Plants - The Rusted Garden

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Fall Greens and Garlic: You Still Have Time!

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I'm slowly taking my garden back from weeds and some neglect. I just get busy come August and get burned out. I did manage to get some Fall peas in and they are doing great.  In Maryland we still have time for cool weather gardening. I plan to get some more lettuce and greens into to garden tomorrow. I am also going  to plant garlic now for next Spring. If you haven't grown garlic before, you can just plant the garlic from the grocery store. You don't need to do much but get it in the ground about an inch deep.

I am also clearing out all my containers and I am going to overseed them with lettuce for baby leaf greens.  I hope you get a chance to grow Fall greens. I will extend the gardening season!

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