Home Kitchen and Garden Design

Subscribe to my YouTube Channel  The Rusted Garden Over 800 Garden Videos Designed to Quickly Present Information! Please Support The Rusted Garden by Shopping through my Amazon Affiliate Link Revisiting My Old Self-Wicking Tomato Containers:  Improvements and New Designs for 'Self Watering' Tomato Containers Please Visit The Rusted Garden Vegetable Seed and Garden Shop The design for my original self-wicking tomato watering containers is going to be 2 years old. Some lessons learned have given me ideas for a new design or two. I will be making those videos over the next month or so. The greatest lesson learned is that reserve water in this design and any design will stagnate if the water is not full used by the tomato or plant. The first question to ask before building one is: Do I need a self-wicking container for my tomatoes or garden plants? The answer can be found by answering two more questions. Does the heat of my summer dry a 5 gallon container out in less than 24 hours

Winner Selected for the February Seed Give-A-Way Blake Williams won the seed give-a-way as he was the first to show up as retweeting February's prize. I am looking to to grow my Instagram and Twitter presents but have found many people would like to participate that only visit my blog.  I appreciate that so... I will be doing different things each month for the seed give-a-ways via all three social mediums (is that plural for media?). So stay tuned by following me on Instagram, Twitter and by following my blog. Thanks! Good Luck in Your Gardens, Gary Spring is almost here! Join My New YouTube Channel Just for NEW Gardeners: My First Vegetable Garden Join My Google+ Community Our Tomato and Vegetable Gardens (2500+ Members!) 250 HD Short and to Point Garden Videos: My YouTube Video Gardening Channel Follow and Organize The Rusted Garden on Pinterest

Subscribe to my YouTube Channel  The Rusted Garden Over 800 Garden Videos Designed to Quickly Present Information! Please Support The Rusted Garden by Shopping through my Amazon Affiliate Link Starting Cucumbers, Zucchini and Squash Indoors:  Bigger Containers and Warm Weather! Cucumbers, zucchini and squash are fast growing plants. You do NOT have to start them indoors as they can grow quickly right out of your garden as long as the soil and temperatures are warm. Some of the reasons to start them indoors is to improve germination rates or to get an established plant in the garden if you battle garden pests. Sometimes a bigger transplant takes hold better. And you can start them early, of course, to get a jump on the season. If you want to start cucumbers, zucchini and squash indoors to get a jump on the season, you really have to make sure you start them in larger containers. You don't want them to get root bound and the small starting cells are just to small for bigger seeds and

Fertilizing Tomato Seedlings and Transplants:  Practices and Pitfalls  I have two videos that go along with this blog article. I wanted to do two videos about fertilizing that would give you some information to best design your own routine. There is no single method for fertilizing your indoor tomato seedlings and transplants. As with any gardening activity.... ask 1000 gardeners and you will get 1000 answers. All different but yet with similar themes. A plant can not tell the difference between organic and inorganic fertilizer. So use what you prefer and what is available in your area. I don't like the organic products for indoor use. They just smell bad. But fish emulsion and other products will be used in my greenhouse and garden beds. Every product has a use if used with a plan. The biggest point I want to stress is to use a water soluble fertilizer at 1/2 strength. Some people even use 1/4 strength. Your tomato seedlings and transplants do not need a full strength fertilizer.

February 2014 Vegetable Garden Seed Give-A-Way at The Rusted Garden:  Follow Me on Instagram and Twitter to Win To promote  my garden blog  and  YouTube channel , I will be giving away vegetable seeds through 2014 and other items that are hopefully of interest. This will be a monthly event. February's 2014 Give-A-Way! 7 Packs of Tomato Seeds Aussie 1-2 Pound Heirloom Cherokee Purple Heirloom Baxter's Bush Cherry Abe Lincoln Heirloom Black Krim Heirloom Brandywine Red Heirloom Black Cherry (Cherry) I will be sending out a Tweet on Sunday February 9th. The first person to re-tweet  MY TWEET that day, will win the seeds. It will show up in my email in order of re-tweet with a time stamp. Good Luck! Seed Give-A-Way: The Rusted Garden 2014 To be eligible for the prizes, please follow  The Rusted Garden on Twitter  or please follow  The Rusted Garden on Instagram . I will send out a Tweet or Instagram stating a prize is available and how to win it.  Most likely, I will just be taking

Growing Cilantro, Basil, Parsley & Chives on a Kitchen Windowsill Part 1 of 3: Starting the Seeds Peat pellets are used for this project because they are going to spend most of their time sitting in water mixed with 1/2 strength liquid fertilizer. The design of  a peat pellet is perfect for this. It allows room for root growth and it will allow roots to grow out of the medium and into the water. Cilantro, basil, parsley and chives were selected for this video because they don't mind wet roots and can do well in water. This is a 3 part video series I am doing. This video explains the basic concept of growing herbs in peat pellets and water and how to plant the seeds. The goal is not to grow full sized herbs on your kitchen windowsill but to grow many many leaves. The 1/2 strength nutrient solution will keep the plants happy. You do need a windowsill with at least 8 hours of full sun, if you are germinating them on the sill. If you start them under lights and get them to size, yo