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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Planting Fall Garlic Quickly and Easily - Plant a Few Cloves!
Garlic can take the cold and is often planted in the Fall in many areas. It will over-winter freezes and snow nicely. I show you how I plant common store bought garlic in Maryland Zone 7. Typically I get it in the ground in mid October. However, if the ground can be worked and you can plant it below your freeze level... you can still plant it.
Good Luck with Your Garden,
Gary (The Rusted Garden)
Organically Preparing a Fall Garden Bed for Spring:
Newspaper Weed-Block!
There are many ways to prepare your vegetable garden beds in the fall so they are ready for the spring. This is how I prepares some of my beds, so come fall, I just turn the ground and plant. I prepared this with organic fertilizers and I use a newspaper layer for weed block. Like I said, come spring I just turn it and plant it.
Good Luck with Your Garden,
Gary (The Rusted Garden)
I am starting the 2016 gardening season off with this video. This is how you can use hardwood ash in your garden. My approach is very limited use of hardwood ash in the fall. This gives your garden or more specifically the soil organisms time to break the ash down. Hardwood ash provides potassium, calcium, magnesium and trace elements to your vegetable gardens.
Good Luck with Your Garden,
Gary (The Rusted Garden)
Using 100% Cold Pressed Neem Oil with Azadirachtin in Your Garden:
Stop Chewing Insects!
I have been using Neem Oil for several years. It is outstanding for stopping chewing insects in your vegetable garden. It is 100% natural as it pressed from the seeds of the Neem tree. If you look up Neem Oil use in India, you will find it has been used for well over a 1000 years.
I sell 100% Cold Pressed Neem Oil with all its components on my blog. You are certainly welcome to purchase it from me but no matter from where you purchase it.... make sure it is 100% cold pressed with the component azadirachtin. That is what kills chewing insects. That is what you are paying for as an insect killer.
Sadly, in the States they sell a filtered product of Neem and all you get is the oil. All the key components are gone. An oil in itself does smother and kill insects but you can use any oil for that. If you buy Neem Oil make sure it is not filtered. This video will explain the products that ARE NOT useful and yet fool you buy saying Neem Oil.
Neem oil changed the way I can grow kales, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels Sprouts, collards and the related crops. Neem oil with Azadirachtin coats the leaves, the insects chew and ingest it and in several days they die. It will not harm non chewing insects if they are not sprayed by it. There are several ways to mix the spray. You can watch my videos but because soaps and climates vary... ALWAYS test spray new sprays on leaves of your different vegetables. You should wait 48 hours to see if the spray damages the leaves of the different plants. If there is not damage spray away.
Here are some testimonials from people that have used 100% Cold Pressed Neem Oil and/or purchased what I sell. Just make sure you buy 100% cold pressed Neem Oil with all its components. you want the Azadiracthin.
Good Luck with Your Garden,
Gary (The Rusted Garden)
Come mid July from heat, bugs, diseases or all three... your cucumbers can get beat up. A lot of time, here in Maryland Zone 7, I get great production from my cucumbers from late June until the end of July. But then the plants just get beat down. That leads me to my first and most under utilized tip.
TIP ONE: Start some new cucumber transplants mid July. Select a fast maturing variety and start the seeds outdoors in 8 ounce cups. Replace your old beat up plants with 2 week old transplants come the end of July. They should be up producing by the end of August.
Your cucumbers might be a bit weathered and worn. You can use Epsom Salt as a way to green them up and it is probably a good idea to give the a nice large liquid feeding with a balanced liquid fertilizer that covers N-P-K and micro-nutrients. This is true for both container and ground planted cucumbers. If you are growing cucumbers in containers, you should be feeding them at least 2x's a month when they are producing.
TIP TWO: Give them some Epsom Salt and a liquid fertilizer that is well balanced.
Sometimes you get lots of flowers and little cucumbers that seem to turn brown and die after growing. That is because the female flower with the tiny cucumber wasn't fertilized. You can actually hand pollinate cucumbers to increase production.
TIP THREE: Learn the difference between male and female cucumber flowers and try your hand at hand pollination. This will help you get more mature cucumbers.
Cucumbers can take up a lot of space in the garden. Trellising cucumbers is a great way to save space and better manage pests and disease. It is a lot easy to spray cucumbers that are growing vertically. You are able to get both sides of the leaves much more easily.
TIP FOUR: Grow your cucumbers vertically. It makes care much easier!
Cucumbers are often attacked by cucumber beetles and other insects for that I use Neem Oil and soap to make a spray. They also can get powdery mildew. For that I use a baking soda spray. Spraying before problems arise is key. Know when problems show up in your garden. Write down the dates and start spraying 2 weeks before they arrive. AND.... ALWAYS test spray anytime you make a spray, it is important to test a few leaves with the spray and wait 48 hours to see if any damage occurs.
TIP FIVE: Start spraying 2 weeks before problems arise in your garden. I use Neem Oil for insects and baking soda at times as an anti-fungal.
Good Luck with Your Garden,
Gary (The Rusted Garden)
