There’s nothing better than a salad made with fresh lettuce from the garden. Adding lettuce to your garden can be a welcome addition. Not only is healthy and tasty to eat but it needs very little space to grow. But there are some guidelines you should know before planting lettuce.
To grow lettuce or any other vegetable, you need to have good soil. For lettuce, keep the nitrogen level high by using 30-10-10 NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium) fertilizer. This will provide the lettuce with the nutrition it needs to produce healthy leaves.
Plant the seeds about 1/8-3/8 inch deep, separated by 6-12 inches (2-3.5 m) from the next plant. Romaine does fine at the smaller spacing, but crisp lettuce needs more room. If you plant in rows, keep the rows separated by about 20 inches (6m). Keep in mind that seeds shouldn’t be planted too early, since they’re subject to cold damage.
Keeping the soil moist but not soaked is good. Lettuce doesn’t have very deep roots, so it needs to find moisture near the surface. Still, try to keep the water off the leaves and onto the soil, except for the occasional washing. Wet leaves encourages disease, especially when they’re moist during nighttime temperatures.
Since their roots aren’t very deep you’ll also need to be diligent about weeding around lettuce plants. Many grasses and other plants can compete well because their roots go down to deeper soil. Infrequent but deep watering, letting the top layers dry out, will give most an advantage. But lettuce doesn’t have that advantage, so you’ll need to help them.
Like most vegetables, lettuce plants also have problems with diseases and pests. In their case, the variety is quite large. Many insects find the leaves irresistible and the folds offer many places for fungi to grow.
Aphids, flea beetles and leafhoppers are common problems. Slugs are even more so. Cutworms are often seen. Washing with a high pressure hose can help temporarily, but be sure to do it early to give the leaves time to dry before nightfall. A good insecticide lightly applied will keep them under control for the long term.
Anthracnose (Microdochium panattonianum) is a common fungal disease. It can stay alive in unplanted soil for many years, so don’t assume you’re safe because your garden is new. Bottom rot (Rhizoctonia solani) is another common fungus. It occurs usually in soil that drains poorly. Keeping the foliage dry and planting in good soil will help to reduce the odds of being infected.
Another common problem with lettuce is bolting. Bolting is not a disease or pest but occurs when the plant goes to seed and the leaves stop growing. Bolting happens when the temperatures are consistently too high. To prevent this from happening, plant lettuce in shaded area or plant next to a shading crop such as corn.
With the proper preparation, planting technique and care you can have lettuce several times during a growing season.
About the Author:
Looking for ideas for your
vegetable garden layout? Search no more - visit the Vegetable Gardeners website at http://www.vegetablegardeners.com for lots of helpful tips and advice. Plus get your own copy of our free reports for growing better vegetables.
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August 25 2008 | Gardening | No Comments »
Besides mowing the grass and some light landscaping, when is the last time you spent some time making the outside of your home look better and more functional. If you’re like most homeowners, most of your beautification efforts are aimed at improving the inside. Here we’ll concentrate on making the outside better by simply improving your patio.
Chances are you don’t use this area as much as you could or should, but adding a patio cover will allow you to spend more time enjoying this area. And if you want it to look great and add value to your home, then you need to look carefully at wood patio covers. We all know wood looks great, but it will add functional benefits as well.
But first let’s talk about why you need a patio cover. The shade it gives will let you sit outside even when the hot summer sun is beating down. And the cover will protect you from other elements as well. Now you can sit outside and enjoy a warm summer rain while not getting wet. You can enjoy a cool shower while staying dry in the evening. And of course we already mentioned it will add value to your property.
If all this sounds good to you, then you simply need to decide on what kind of patio cover to get. We think that although there are many choices, wood is best because it provides flexibility. You can create a cover that is unique. Wood, when treated, will hold up well in all the elements. And of course wood will always look good.
Whatever wood you choose should go well with the look and feel of your home. Do you want to paint it? If so, consider using pinewood because it holds paint really well. But you can’t get pinewood with an anti-rotting treatment. If you’re not painting, you can use treated redwood, cedar or cyprus. And if you want to stain it, go with a long grained wood for a continuous flow and design.
Now let’s get creative. Add decorative accents and designs to your patio cover. It’s a little extra work but well worth it because you’ll be making your patio cover more stylish, and more valuable. You can use arbors and lattice. These are ornate, intricate and beautiful. Use them in combination to make something truly unique.
But be aware that when you start to look around for ways to do this, you’ll come across a lot of pre-made patio covers. Look carefully and you’ll find that most of them are not made from real wood. In fact some of them will require real wood for support. Before you buy something like this, realize that it would be better to use all wood from the start.
You’ll also find the same companies putting out wood patio kits for the do it yourselfer. These kits use wood tiles that interlock, in much the same way they are used for wood floors. They’re good because you can easily take them apart, easily clean them, and even move them somewhere else if that’s something you may need to do.
But if you want to get the best cover for your patio, a solid wood patio cover is certainly a good way to go.
About the Author:
To learn additional ways to improve your patio, visit Patio-Covers-Guide.com. You’ll find out about other cover materials including the
vinyl patio cover, plus explore how a
patio canopy can also make a difference.
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August 19 2008 | Gardening | No Comments »