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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One rule I try to follow when making anything for the garden is... can it serve more than one purpose. I also keep in mind, the ease of construction, the ease of storage, the ease of use, and the ease on my out of pocket costs.
A Basic Frame for Crop Protection
This easily constructed basic frame checks all the boxes. It can be cut and measured to fit any size raised bed or garden space. A simple set of legs or supports will allow it to sit over the ground or over a collection of containers. You can use this build to protect your crops from rabbits, deer, squirrels, and birds. When it isn't protecting your plants, you can use as a light weight trellis.
Easy to Build Frame for Crop Protection
Use Flat or Slightly Propped as Plants Grow
The key to this design is using a piece of wood to secure all 4 corners of the frame. Cut any scrap of wood to create a rectangular block. It should be wide enough to hold 2 or 3 screws as seen in the picture. Depending on the size and width of the wood you are using for the frame pieces, you want to use 2 or 3 inch screws. It is important to have at least 1 inch of screw length in the rectangular block. Once the frame is secured in the corners, with the blocks, it is solid. The chicken wire or fencing is secured using a standard staple gun.
The rectangular blocks, not only secure the frame corners, they are used to raise the height of the frame as plants grow. I like to use bricks. The wide base of the rectangular block is perfect for securely sitting the cover on any supports you put under it. Check out my video from my YT Channel The Rusted Garden.
Another use for the basic frame, is a long trellis down the length of a bed. The frame can be tied to posts when using it as a trellis. If you build two frames, you can lean them on each other and build an A frame trellis. In that case, I would just tie the edges that meet, that build the top of the triangle, with rope in several places. Chicken wire can easily support peas, beans, cucumber and even light melons.
Bricks Are Perfect for Raising the Cover
Once Way to Use it as a Trellis
This easy to build and inexpensive frame can be built in any shape that meets the needs of your garden. I like using the materials seen here as the frame is lightweight but very effective.
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Strawberries are one of my favorite crops to grow in the garden. I grow them in the ground, in containers, and in vertical towers. If you have rabbits or limited space, I highly recommend growing them in GreenStalk vertical planters. You can get a discount using my link and codeTHERUSTEDGARDEN on GreenStalk planters.
As the season begins to end, you have the opportunity to propagate all the runners that come from the established plants. This is a great way to save money, as a single plant can easily cost $3 or more. A patch of strawberry plants can produce well over 100 runners that produce baby plants.
A strawberry plant can produce several long runners and each runner can have 3 or more new strawberry plants on them. The mother plants support the needs and growth of the young plants, through the runners, and as the plants mature, they eventually contact the ground and roots form. This is how new strawberry plants are established and move across the ground.
Strawberry Runners Looking for Soil
Strawberry plants are still active late summer and early fall before a heavy frost eventually arrives and starts their dormancy period. A quick drink of any water-soluble fertilizer is perfect to help them support runner growth and leaf growth for even another round of late season strawberries, if you are growing everbearing varieties. The feeding now, will also help them come next spring when they wake from dormancy and grow leaves to get started for the new season. They will appreciate the available nitrogen very early in the spring.
Water-Soluble Fertilizer to Each Plant
Runners, in towers, can be a problem as they just hang there and search for soil to contact. One way to help them is to tuck them into pockets where there is space, but you still end up with so many dangling baby plants. A basic plastic bag that zips closed is perfect. It easily form fits into the tower pockets.
Soil Bags for Strawberry Runner Propagation
Just fill the bag with any quality soil that will hold moisture. A starting mix, your compost, some earth with extra peat moss or a combination of all them. Any moist soil will work. Make sure you cut a small hole on the bottom for drainage. Once the bag is in place, cut small slits in the bag (up to 4) and press in the baby plants. The sealed bag helps keep moisture in the soil. The plants will quickly root and establish a good root system in about 4-5 weeks. Once the roots are well established, remove them from the bag and transplant them where you wish. The plants will continue to develop roots and when the frosts arrive, they will go dormant for the season.
A Basic Strawberry Propagation Soil Bag
Late summer or early fall is a great time for the quick boost of fertilizer. End of the season care, once dormancy sets in may include mulching the strawberry plants to protect them from heavy winter ground freezes. Here in Maryland I do not mulch any of my strawberry beds or containers or move my GreenStalk towers. I leave them out 24/7. I have had some of them for 7 years. Please follow my blog and I will help teach you how to grow food.
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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. We discuss crops you can plant now in August and September for a fall garden. We cover both warm and cool crops and how they differ.
New episodes will be launched on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month.
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Squash bugs really can't be defeated one hundred percent in a garden, but the damage they cause can be greatly managed down. You can move them from the category of devastating your squash and zucchini to being nuisances on your plants. They are also very resistant to insect dusts and sprays.
The Squash Bug
The first step is to accept they are present and that the goal is to reduce their population which will reduce garden damage. The second step is to follow my routine or the parts you find appropriate for your garden. The adults show up and their goal is to lay eggs, 100's of eggs, on the undersides of leaves. You may also find them on the stems. Inspect your squash and zucchini leaves, at least three times a week, and look for the eggs. A sticky piece of tape pressed on the egg cluster will remove them from the leaf. Press the tape on the eggs and peel. Egg removal is probably the greatest way to reduce damage, because you reduce the potential population of feeding hatchlings and future adult squash bugs.
Squash Bug Eggs
When watering your plants, soak the base of the plant with a hose. The adult squash bugs hang out under the plant and therefore watering by hand, on their home, sends them running up the plant. After watering thoroughly, wait 5 minutes, and look around the base of the plant. You will see the adults relocating to higher dry ground. Remove them by hand, yes by hand. My video from my YouTube channel The Rusted Garden fully demonstrates the watering technique and methods outlined in this article.
You will most likely miss some eggs and they will hatch. The leaves are typically damaged where the hatchlings congregate and grow. You can find them by continuing to inspect the undersides of leaves, several times a week. Soapy water spray works really well on the soft-bodied squash bug hatchlings and juveniles. When they reach maturity, the adult squash bugs, often need a stronger soap spray.
Recently Hatched Squash Bugs
Another, but not overly effective, way to manage them is with any insect dust such as organic dusts with Spinosad. I have found the adults to be very resistant to insect dusts and sprays. The younger squash bugs do seem to be harmed more by the dusts. If you are going to use dust, make sure you use it on leaves, stems, and vines and not the flowers. Dusts kill good and bad insects. Contacting them with a strong soap spray seems to be the most effective form of management, in my experience.
You do have to test spray, to ensure the soap concentration of your mix, doesn't damage plant leaves. Always spray a couple of leaves and wait 24-48 hours and check for damage before widely using the mix. Remember each plant variety may react differently to the spray.
Insect Dust
Soaps vary from pure clean soap often called Castile or simple soap to harsh concentrated dish detergents. These detergents are often called dish soap. It is very confusing and all soap and detergents are not equal. The best approach is to consider any 'dish soap' as a degreaser detergent. I recommend picking one type of soap and sticking with it. Make your sprays, test spray, adjust the mix, and when you get a mix that is strong and effective, but doesn't damage leaves, stick with it.
Start with the recipes below in 1 gallon of water. I make the spray mix in gallon empty milk cartons and fill whatever sprayer I am using when the spray is needed. This mix has an indefinite shelf life.
Soap Mix Recipe Ratios
Pure Castile or Clean Basic Soaps (1-2 tablespoons) in a gallon of water & test spray.
Increase by 1 tablespoon if you want to increase the potency of the spray.
Mild Detergents Dish Soaps (2-3 teaspoons) in a gallon of water & test spray.
Increase by 1.5 teaspoons if you want to increase the potency of the spray.
Harsh Concentrate Detergents with Strong Degreasers (1-2 teaspoons) in a gallon of water & test spray.
Increase by 1 teaspoon if you want to increase the potency of the spray.
The goal is to maximize the amount of soap or detergent in the gallon of water without causing damage to the leaves. The spray should be used to contact the insects, as direct contact is how they are killed. Sprayed leaves that dry, do no harm to the squash bugs. I simply fill a spray bottle with my mix ratios and carry it with me when I inspect the plants for eggs. Keep in mind that the young squash bugs are pretty easily killed by soap sprays. The adults seems to be most harmed by more soap and a touch of degreasers.
They are plenty of leaves on squash and zucchini plants. Start working on you mixes early on and over a weeks time, you can maximize the amount of soap in your mix. The best time to spray is early morning or later evening.
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I wanted to provide visual examples of growth and germination for some warm and cool crops that can be direct seeded in August and September. Seeing how quickly the seeds grow, my influence your decision to try late summer direct seeding. It is the least expensive way to grow food.
I am in Maryland zone 7. Many gardeners don't realize that warm crops, like beans, zucchini, squash, melons, and cucumbers, can be planted many times over the season. Multiple plantings, through the summer, is one strategy to beat pests and diseases. A topic I'll be addressing in a future blog article.
Gardeners also forget there is, in many gardens, an opportunity for a second round of cool season crop planting. Which of course is late summer into early winter, depending on your location. Cool crop plants that are seeded into warm soil, germinate much more quickly than when planted in the cool soil of spring. We use this to our advantage, by planting them in later summer.
Here is a list of 22 crops I planted from my blog post on August 6, 2023: 35 Crops You Can Direct Seed in August and September. The pictures below are approximately 10 days from direct seeding. You can see what germination and growth looks like. The bottom line is everything is faster with the heat of summer warming the soil. I also included whether or not they are cool or warm season crops. Keep in mind that most of the plantings seen below will be thinned down to one or two plants. You can watch the video above, from my YouTube channel, if you want to see me talk about the 22 plants listed below. The appear in the they show up in the video.
Spinach (cool)
5-7 days to germinate and about 10 days from seeding.
I recommend keeping a journal of the dates you direct seed. Cool crops do germinate more quickly in the warm summer soil but if they don't get the cool temperatures of fall 'soon enough' as they mature, they can quickly flower (bolt) and go to seed. For instance, Pak Choy, was probably planted to early in my garden, so I will plant it again in later August. An example to find the right timing, in your garden, is to plant some seeds like radishes, August 1, August 15, September 1, and September 15. You can assess when the best planting time is for them. If you need seeds for you fall garden please consider going to my seed and garden shop, link below and to all the seedling photograms.
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Growing bell peppers can be challenging. They tend to need a little bit more in the way of soil preparation and care, verses other peppers. The good news is that the extra care is pretty basic. As for the sweet banana pepper, it is just a very prolific, easy grower, that is perfect for all gardens. Not only do you get a ton of peppers, they also begin producing quite early in the season. They do well in most soil types and just aren't to picky.
This is the basic set up I use for growing most peppers in my garden. When you watch the video, notice the bell peppers are in a Vegega Metal Raised Bed (use my link to view metal beds) and the banana peppers are in a wooden raised bed, I built. While they can be grown 100% in the earth, I like growing bell peppers in some sort of raised bed because I can really create a loose soil. Loose soil, to a good 10-12 inches minimum, really makes a difference for the bell pepper varieties. If you are planting in the earth, (not containers or raised beds), really work the soil to a depth of 12 inches. There are many ways to accomplish this, 'loose soil', and it will vary garden to garden.
Mix One
50% compost and 50% native earth/soil (your ground)
Mix Two (My Base Mix)
50% peat moss and 50% native soil and cheap bagged top soil (if native earth is not available)
Mix Three
75% of 'my base mix' and 25% compost
The first mix is the gold standard but we all don't have access to compost at times. The second is my general base mix of 50/50 peat/any earth. Once made, I make a mix of 2/3 'my base mix' and 1/3 compost. You can add in organic granular fertilizer once, the beds are filled or about a handful per planting hole. 'Mix Three' can really be varied based on what you like and have available, but the bottom line is that it will be very loose, it will hold moisture, and it is what a bell pepper's root system wants. While many pepper plants do just fine in different soil, they all will thrive in this type of mix. Again, the sweet banana pepper is your friend for production and lesser prepared soil.
A Typical Bell Pepper Harvest from My Metal Bed
You probably have read or heard a lot about not over doing the nitrogen for peppers and to have a granular mix that is higher in phosphorous and potassium. While this is true, it doesn't make much difference with organic granular fertilizers. The reason is that no one tells what over doing nitrogen really means. It typically comes from using excessive water soluble fertilizers. Especially the chemical types that can have 24% nitrogen. Granular fertilizers are slow release fertilizers and tend to have lower numbers in the way of N, P, and K in general. I recommend buying whatever is on sale.
The N, P, and K percentages in organic granular fertilizers are fine for initial bed preparation and for a mid-season top dressing. I use the water soluble types (your choice) at planting, a good deep drink for each plant and again midseason with a quick drink. I don't recommend using the water soluble fertilizers more often than 2 or 3x's over the season. If your plants are struggling early on, a quick drink, for the extra nitrogen, will help. Water soluble fertilizers are fast release fertilizers, meaning the plants can access the N, P, and K immediately. Over-use of fast release nitrogen is what causes pepper plant to over grow leaves. This issue is not your slow release fertilizers.
Loose soil is the main key. The root systems, of the bell peppers, will thrive and fill up the space early on and they will love the extra care given to the soil. A strong root system is what leads to thriving stems, leaves, and pepper growth. A lot of people focus less on soil preparation and more on fertilizers. Watering is also important, and this soil preparation holds moisture. Moisture is how the plants access all the nutrients. If you aren't watering your peppers 3 or 4x's a week, come mid summer, you aren't watering enough. Of course this varies garden to garden; but error on the side of more.
A Typical Sweet Banana Pepper Harvest - 6 plants
Finally, sunshine. Peppers love the sun and 8 hours of sunshine is the minimum. Less than that and you get wimpy stems and smaller peppers. I found my bell peppers do best with 10 hours of sun. Notice that I essentially said, earth, water, and sunshine. As I said, it is pretty basic.
General ongoing care would be staking and managing the flow of air. I recommend removing lower leaves that are blocked by the upper canopy and other plants as the mature. Leaves in shade don't do much but for create homes for pests and diseases. My video from my YouTube channel covers everything discussed here. Bell pepper plants are very fragile. Keep them supported and always cut the peppers from the plant. There is nothing worse than breaking a stem with lots of small peppers on them.
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.
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My new podcast series E-1 is now available! Cheers.
The Rusted Garden Homestead podcast will always be about growing, cooking, and sharing food with family and friends. This is the first episode! I talk with my friend Erica Jones, a master gardener and chef. We discuss getting started growing food, basic cooking, what to plant in your garden, garlic, and more!
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
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