Understanding Bagged Garden Soil Products: What They Are & My Container Mix Recipe

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Understanding Bagged Garden Soil Products:  What They Are & My Container Mix Recipe
What exactly is the difference between topsoil, garden soil, raised bed soil and potting mix? The bottom line is usually peat moss. The increase in peat moss with the addition of (in smaller amounts) coco coir, perlite and vermiculite is what typically changes the name on the bag. In addition to these amendments a lot of products have wood added to them under the name forestry product found under the ingredients label. You don't want excess would in your products.

This video explains the different labels and I show you what you find in the bag and discuss where you would use that bagged product. I also cover amendments; peat moss, leaf gro and humus & manure. It is important you know what you are buying and where you would use it in your garden. I also show you how I make my basic container soil that is cheaper than the bagged products.

Good Luck, Gary (The Rusted Garden)

Growing Cherry Tomatoes from Start to Finish: Planting, Feeding, Staking, Pruning & More!

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Growing Cherry Tomatoes from Start to Finish:  Planting, Feeding, Staking, Pruning and More!

This video is a compilation of 5 videos that teach you how to grow cherry tomatoes. I start with planting the seed in the the ground. You get to watch the plant grow from a seedling through full maturity and harvesting. The star of the video is a tomato variety called 'Midnight Snack.' It is an All-America Selections Winner for 2017.

If you are just starting to grow your own vegetables, cherry tomatoes are an outstanding addition. They grow quickly and really produce a lot of tomatoes. I recommend try two cherry tomato varieties in your garden. Pick up a transplant from your local stores and go with one of the sweet hybrid varieties. For the second tomato, find a variety that really looks interesting to you and order a pack of seeds. Two cherry type tomato plants will ensure you get a regular supply of tomatoes for your table. Enjoy Gary (The Rusted Garden)

A Complete Guide to Growing Container Eggplant & How to Fry Your Harvest: Grow It Cook It Eat It!

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A Complete Guide to Growing Container Eggplant & How to Fry Your Harvest:  Grow It Cook It Eat It!

Eggplant is an outstanding container vegetable. It is extremely productive. I show you everything you need to do to maintain them in containers, once planted and growing. 

Eggplant is the “meat” of the garden and Stacy Lyn will show you how to fry and make breaded garden fresh eggplant. A perfect golden fry that can be used with all kinds of sauces & preparations. Her cookbook, Harvest, contains this delicious recipe as well as many more!

Stacy Lyn's 'Harvest' Cookbook a perfect companion for Grow It Cook It Eat It

Stacy Lyn's Website Game and Garden

Stacy Lyn's YT Channel

Come Join Stacy and I in Grow It Cook it Eat it's FB group

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Contact Me at therustedgarden@gmail.com

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How Well Do All-America Selections Winners Grow? Extremely Prolific Vegetable Plants for Your Gardens

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How Well Do All-America Selections Winners Grow? 
Extremely Prolific Vegetable Plants for Your Gardens

I had a great time growing All-America Selections Winners in my garden this year. I highly recommend going to their site and finding the new winners as well as some past winner from the last 85 years. Yes, they have doing this for 85 years! The 2018 AAS Winners have just been released and I will be growing some of them next year. Why not get something new and be the first in your area to grow it, show it off and of course eat it.

So... are the winners truly winners? Do they just have a stamp on them or do they offer something that merits the title of a winner?  What makes a vegetable or flower an AAS Winner? Well I have the answers for you in my garden tour video.

I grow and test before I recommend. Here is my most recent video with some wonderful, fully  'The Rusted Garden' tested,  All American Selections Winners. They one word I use, in the video, often is prolific. They really produce and produce and produce. I show off 8 mature vegetable varieties and 1 flower variety I grew this year.  And check out the production!

They were easy to grow, highly productive, great tasting and seemed to have some extra disease resistance (some varieties) compared to like vegetables.  I believe they have the qualities of winners. Check out my most recent video A Tour of My All-America Selection Winner's Garden: 9 Prolific Varieties for the Ground & Containers and decide for yourself.

I had a great time growing new found varieties I haven't grown before. I will be growing an All-America Selections garden next year. I encourage you to join me by following my YT Channel The Rusted Garden. Here are the vegetables in the videos.  All-America Selections doesn't sell the seeds, they only declare winners every year. You can find seed distributors that sell them by going to the AAS website or search the variety name to find sellers.

Find these All-America Selections Winners a: http://all-americaselections.org/buy-...

Candle Fire Okra

Sweet Banana Pepper

Fantastico Tomato

Seyshelles Pole Bean

Cornito Gaillo Sweet Pepper

Patio Choice Yellow Tomato

Midnight Snack Tomato

Patio Baby Eggplant 

Pretty N Sweet Pepper

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Mental Health and The Vegetable Garden Part One: Positively Changing Your Structure & Routine

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Mental Health and The Vegetable Garden

Part One: Positively Changing Your Structure and Routine

by Gary Pilarchik (The Rusted Garden) 

I have been working in the field of mental health for nearly 30 years and have been a Clinical Mental Heath Therapist for the last 15 years. My grandfather introduced me to world of vegetable gardening when I was in elementary school. He came over one day with tomato transplants and dug a garden. He taught me how to plant and grow my own tomato plants. My memories of him, in the garden with me, continue today. What he taught me that day ignited a passion and that passion continues to influences my daily life.

Mental heath is really about life quality. We perceive the world. We feel the world. We interact with the world. We are social beings that interact with family, friends and the communities in which we live. Life quality is often influenced by our daily structures and weekly routines. They vary greatly person to person. Sometimes our structures and routines are defined, in part, by things outside of our control. What is within our control, the things we can change, is how we can begin to improve our mental health and the quality of our lives.

Early Spring Container Garden

Think about your daily structure and weekly routine. They really are about activity, and far to often, the lack of activity or negative activity. Hobbies, like growing a vegetable garden, can change the way you interact with the world, at many levels. Positive activity additions to your life will greatly benefit your sense of wellbeing and mental health. Small changes in your daily life can make large changes in the quality of your life. The key is breaking your routine and trying something new. Change will never knock at your door. You literally have to go outside and dig around for it. This video explains some of the concepts in the article and teaches you how to start a small container garden. Please share you experience in the video comments. I think it will help others.

The keyword is enjoy. Planting, tending and harvesting vegetables from your own garden is a wonderful way to bring more enjoyment to your life. Too often we look at career, income, possessions and status as ways to become happier. While these things are important, you can make changes on a smaller scale. You can find an improved sense of well-being by finding and adding activities that you, not only enjoy, but can also share with family and friends. Gardening is both a solitary and social activity. As much as you may enjoy time alone, social interaction is also needed in life. Sharing a passion with like people will improve your mental health.

Gardening is a wonderful hobby because Nature designed the plants to grow and produce in all types of conditions. You can make mistakes and still get vegetables. You will learn life lessons in the garden and can teach life lessons to your children. You don't need formal training to have a garden. You only need to get started.

My Tomato Garden

You will need earth, sunshine, water and a space. You can dig a small garden in your yard or start on your deck or patio with containers. If you don't have land or enough sun, you can find family and friends that do and start gardening with them. There is a good chance there are community gardens in your area where you can rent a space at a very low price. The biggest barrier to positive change is putting out the effort to break your routine and add something different to it. If you don't want to start alone or need some help, find some family members or friends that want to give gardening a try. Have fun, share the experience and most importantly just get started.

Gardening will improve your mental health in many ways. I think the most important thing it does is it occupies your mind in healthy way for a period of time. You begin to focus on and get lost in the activity. You notice the smell of the soil, feel the shovel digging into the earth and hear the sounds of birds chirping around you. You begin to create, shape and transform your garden, completing the day's task. People stop worrying about the past, present and future and become totally absorb in the care of their garden. This process is called mindfulness.

When we lack positive or constructive daily activity and sit, we often dwell on the negative aspects of our lives. Caring for a vegetable garden takes you away from being sedentary and alone with unstructured time. It gets you out and interacting with your world. The outdoors, sunshine and plants will always beat staying indoors. Your are not only changing what you do but are changing how you think and perceive the world around you. This type of change may seem small but the impact on how you begin to feel is quite large.

Gardening will also reward you with a sense of accomplishment over and over again. The feeling of accomplishment leads to an improvement in self esteem. Taking a space and turning the ground over will be rewarding. Planting your first seeds and seeing them germinate will be rewarding. Picking your first radish will be rewarding. Tasting the herbs you grew in a meal will be rewarding. Remembering when you first turned the ground, planted a tiny tomato seed only to be standing next to a six foot tall plant full of red cherry tomatoes... will be deeply rewarding. Taking those cherry tomatoes to your family and friends and hearing how sweet they are will bring you a great sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.

Making changes to your life is not always easy. Gardening can be hard work. But if you start today, you and your garden will be better tomorrow. The second year gardener always does better than their first year. The third year gardener wants more land and new seed varieties to plant. The fourth year gardener now has a daily structure and weekly routine they love and enjoy and will never give up. If you are interested in gardening, start small, start with a friend, join some FaceBook gardening groups and start watching videos. You'll find the motivation to get started and begin to notice how getting lost in your garden helps you find a way to improve your mental health, life quality and overall well being.

Good Luck and Give It a Try,
Gary (The Rusted Garden)

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