The Rusted Garden Blog

Thanks So Much for Your Support and Donation 100% of all donations given to The Rusted Garden Homestead (The Rusted Garden LLC) go directly to my 'Giving Gardens Charitable Fund' to be used 100% for non-profit organizations and families in need. Donations are used to build or fund projects related to some aspect of gardening that helps communities. I will provide ongoing quarterly updates, on this blog post, showing how the donations where used to help share our passion of gardening with others. I created a donation link through PayPal to provide a secure and easy way to collection donations....

The Rusted Garden Seed and Garden Shop I am often asked what is the key to having a successful container garden and the answer is consistent even moisture. If a container plant dries out completely, one time, it devastates the future growth and production of that vegetable plant. For instance, tomato plants, can manifest a physiological disease called blossom end rot. The bottoms of the tomato turn brown and rot. This is due to the plant not being able to access calcium through its roots. While fertilizer, sunlight, and pest and disease management are important, success starts with soil. Visit...

Growing tomato transplants isn't really difficult once you have the basics down. It just takes some time to learn. However, growing large plants in 6 weeks, that are ready to be planted into a garden, can be challenging. The key is container size. Lighting, watering, and fertilizing will impact plant growth but cell or container size is often over looked. Generally speaking, a transplant's size is constrained by the growing space of the roots. The stronger and larger the root system, the more quickly the plant can grow in size. A lot has been written about lighting, watering, and fertilizing....

The number one mistake made, when starting seeds indoors, is not sterilizing the seed starting mix. Peat based starting mixes are notorious for having fungus gnat eggs in them. They can survive temperature extremes and sit dormant for a very long time in the mixes. Once you add water to the starting mix and expose them to the grow lights and warm temperatures, they hatch. The larva feed on the roots of your seed starts and grow into adult flying gnats. The fungus gnats lay more eggs and the cycle continues, eventually causing the huge problem of seedling loss. The...

During these times of the pandemic there are clearly legitimate reasons to be worried, scared, anxious and stressed. We should feel them and express them. We also need to recognize we can get caught in negative chains of thinking for unhealthy periods of time. Mental wellness activities are not about pretending everything will be fine. They are used in conjunction with feeling what we feel. They are about recognizing where we can step in and take a break. In this case break negative thoughts. It is easy to get lost in negative chaining events for hours. It's not the worrying...