Welcome! This blog is dedicated to helping you grow food and have a better garden. Every year I do a real time garden video series that covers everything! Watch me as I grow in Maryland on my 2 acre garden homestead. Thanks for Visiting "A Garden Wants to Give. All You Have to Do is Help it Along!" Cheers!
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For 2025 I will be actively writing blog posts and the can be found at therustedgardenblog.com. I own that website and that is why I changed.
Here is the link The Rusted Garden Blog I have several posts on starting seeds indoors, cool weather crops, and when to direct sow your vegetable, herb, and flower seeds. Please join me there!
Over 650,000 Subscribers and Over 2000 Garden
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Visit The Rusted Garden Seed and Garden Shop for your Seeds, Starting Supplies,
Fabric Pots, Neem Oil, Peppermint and Other Oils, Calcium Nitrate and More.
The Rusted Garden Seed and Garden Shop
My Podcast is active again. The most current episode is Episode-8 Ep-8 Prepping Your Earth and Container Gardens in the Spring: The Rusted Garden Homestead: All About Growing, Cooking, & Sharing Food
This is my secure link to BuzzSprout where I host them.
Over 650,000 Subscribers and Over 2000 Garden
Videos Designed to Quickly Present Information!
Visit The Rusted Garden Seed and Garden Shop for your Seeds, Starting Supplies,
Fabric Pots, Neem Oil, Peppermint and Other Oils, Calcium Nitrate and More.
The Rusted Garden Seed and Garden Shop
The Rusted Garden Homestead podcast is all about sharing my passion for growing, cooking, and sharing food with family and friends. In this episode, I talk with my friend Erica Jones, a master gardener and chef. Today we cover putting garden beds to rest in the fall. We go over basic amending and tucking the beds in for winter slumber. We also cover the basics for making garden soups. How do you get started!
New episodes will be launched on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month.
Over 650,000 Subscribers and Over 2000 Garden
Videos Designed to Quickly Present Information!
Visit The Rusted Garden Seed and Garden Shop for your Seeds, Starting Supplies,
Fabric Pots, Neem Oil, Peppermint and Other Oils, Calcium Nitrate and More.
The Rusted Garden Seed and Garden Shop
Over 650,000 Subscribers and Over 2000 Garden
Videos Designed to Quickly Present Information!
Visit The Rusted Garden Seed and Garden Shop for your Seeds, Starting Supplies,
Fabric Pots, Neem Oil, Peppermint and Other Oils, Calcium Nitrate and More.
The Rusted Garden Seed and Garden Shop
When I create something for my garden, I try and follow two rules when I design. It should be easy to assembly, take down, and store. It should also solve several problems when possible. This project meets those rules.
Garden PVC Pipe Low Tunnel
The rib design requires a mallet and bending PVC pipe. Each rib can be set up or taken down in under 2 minutes. The low tunnel frame work can be used to hold plastic, as a mini-greenhouse, for starting crops earlier in the season or for extending the season into the winter. The plastic can be swapped out for shade cloth to prolong the growing period of cool crops or as a way to reduce the heat of the midsummer sun and keep warm crops producing. You can also use agfabric or insect fabric on the design, to protect crops from insect pests like cabbage worms.
Space the ribs 2-3 feet a part. The video show you how to build it in more detail, but just hammer in the rebar to at least 1/2 its length and drop the rebar on. I will be doing a future post and video on how to put on the plastic when that time arrives for my garden. There are dozens of ways to do it, once you create the framework. I have over 1500 garden videos if you want to follow me on my YouTube channel: The Rusted Garden.
Materials
PVC Pipe
8-10 foot pieces of 1/2 inch PVC
3 pieces will create 3 ribs and additional piece is needed if you want to use a piece across the top
Rebar
18-24 inch pieces of rebar
You will need 2 pieces for each rib placement
(The rebar should be smaller than the opening of the PVC pipe)
Wire or Rope
Used to secure support pipes
Greenhouse Plastic or Painters Tarp
Enough to cover the frame and leave 2 feet on each side
Shade Cloth
Enough to cover the top of the frame and cover 1/2 down each side
Insect Fabric
Enough to full cover the sides and opening on both ends
Mallet and Rebar
Rebar and PVC Pipe
Securing PVC Piping
I will be putting on the plastic in about 4 weeks, late October. The frame itself can be left up all season long and the 'rainbow' ribs can be strung and used as a trellis. I like that this design can stay out all year or the PVC pipe can be popped off the rebar and easily stored. The rebar could remain in the ground but it is also easily removed.
Shade cloth allows you to keep the soil cooler which means cool crops won't flower and bolt and warm crops won't shut down, due to high soil temperatures, and stop producing. The ribs (below), could have cucumbers all over them with shade cloth protecting them from late July's sun. The design is versatile.
Over 650,000 Subscribers and Over 2000 Garden
Videos Designed to Quickly Present Information!
Visit The Rusted Garden Seed and Garden Shop for your Seeds, Starting Supplies,
Fabric Pots, Neem Oil, Peppermint and Other Oils, Calcium Nitrate and More.
The Rusted Garden Seed and Garden Shop
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