Gardeners can select from a large variety of lettuces that are easy to grow, highly productive in limited space, and virtually pest and disease free. Lettuce is definitely one of the more “care-free” crops. Lettuce is a great way to start gardening; it is what I started out with actually. There are a few key principles though that should always be kept in mind.

Lettuce

For maximum lettuce production, it’s wise to select a site where the soil drains well, yet retains some moisture. The soil should also be rich in nitrogen and potassium, The best way to accomplish this is to work in plenty of organic matter (compost, rotted manure, or leaf mold) that will loosen and enrich the soil.

Most lettuce varieties mature in 45 to 55 days, allowing many gardeners to plant two or even three crops. But looseleaf and butterhead leaves can be harvested at just about any time in their development. Heading varieties take longer to mature. Romaine takes 75 to 85 days and crisphead 70 to 100 days.

By choosing the right varieties and with these lettuce gardening tips, it’s possible to have lettuce in your garden throughout the growing season. This lettuce is great for salads throughout the growing season. There really is nothing better than a fresh Caesar salad with fresh romaine from the garden!

Lettuce Gardening Tips

Lettuce History

Lettuce, one of the oldest food plants known to man, is believed to have originated in India and Central Asia. Even Herodotus wrote of lettuce being served in ancient Greece, and it was a most favorite vegetable in ancient Rome. This is where we get “Caesar Salad”! In fact, the word “lettuce” is derived from the Latin root word “lac” meaning “milk,” referring to the milky juice found in mature lettuce stems.

Columbus and other European explorers brought lettuce seeds to the New World. Our early colonists included lettuce in the first gardens planted in American soil. Today, lettuce is a favorite vegetable here and around the world. It has revolutionized all cultures of food, from hamburgers to salads.

More Lettuce Gardening Tips

Lettuce is so easy to grow it can be started indoors for early transplants or sown directly in the garden. In fact, doing both is recommended to get maximum production. Lettuce seeds are extremely tiny, so it is recommended to be generous with them when planting. It is a good idea to

Romaine Lettuce

start some lettuce seeds indoors in peat pots a few weeks before the last frost date in your area. Provide the seedlings with plenty of sunlight or keep them under artificial lighting until ready to move into the garden. Transplant the seedlings as soon as the soil can be worked in the spring. If a hard freeze threatens, protect the seedlings with a cloche or row cover. Reserve a number of lettuce seedlings to fill empty spaces in the garden as the season progresses.

To sow lettuce directly in the garden, simply plant the seeds about 1/4 inch deep, tamp them down, and water. It’s that simple! Space the sowings according to packet directions that are based on the size of the mature lettuce. For example, a crisphead may require a square foot of garden space. As many as nine plants of a small leaf lettuce variety can grow in the same space.

Keep in mind that lettuce seeds won’t germinate in soil that is 80 degrees F. or warmer, so there’s no sense in sowing directly in the garden in the summer. Resort to starting heat-tolerant varieties indoors and moving the lettuce seedlings into the garden, preferably under partial shade, after they’ve developed a few true leaves.

Lettuce Cultivation

Here are two cultivation tips to keep in mind:

Succession plantings.

Lettuce is ideal for succession planting. Sow seeds every two weeks for production throughout the season, starting with early lettuce varieties, using heat-tolerant varieties as your main crop, and then switching to fall crops late in the summer. Or, if you prefer, use lettuce in successions with other crops. For example, plant lettuce in the spring, followed by bush beans in the summer, followed by lettuce again in the fall.

Watering.

The key to lettuce production is supplying moderate but almost constant water, especially during hot weather. Unless there is regular rainfall, lettuce must be watered deeply at least once a week- more frequently during periods of drought. Mulch with a layer of compost or clean straw to help the soil retain moisture. A drip-irrigation system is ideal.

Lettuce Growing Tips

To improve overall lettuce production, consider using the following four techniques.

Raised beds.

To maximize lettuce production, plant seeds in raised beds. The raised beds warm up faster than the surrounding ground. You should be able to get an earlier start in the spring and a later crop in the fall. Raised bed gardening is, without a doubt, the best way to garden anything out there. Its simplicity, organization, incredible fertility, and results are astounding.

Living mulch.

To make the most of limited garden space, plant lettuce around taller plants like broccoli, Brussels sprouts, peppers, and eggplants. This helps the lettuce grow a lot better; if they are left in the beating sun without moisture, they will not be able to survive. The lettuce helps its neighbor by keeping the surrounding soil moist and cool and keeping weeds shaded out. As the taller plants grow, they provide needed shade for the lettuce as the days get warmer.

‘Tucking.’

You can also start lettuce seedlings indoors for filling vacancies in the garden in late spring and again in early fall as other crops are harvested. Simply ‘tuck’ a seedling in the vacant spot to keep every inch of garden space in constant production.

Ornamental use.

Many varieties of lettuce are welcome additions to ornamental beds. For example, ‘Mighty Red Oak,’ ‘Sweet Red,’and ‘Sierra Blush’ can easily fill gaps in flowerbeds, adding splashes of red where needed.

Insects and Diseases

Lettuce is generally disease and pest free, but you should still be vigilant.

Cutworms and slugs are the most bothersome pests. Use a paper collar around young lettuce seedlings to keep the ravenous caterpillars at bay. Slugs are tougher to control. Sprinkle wood ashes or diatomaceous earth over the soil around the plants to discourage the nasty mollusks. Be sure to reapply after each rainfall.

A major threat is lettuce rot which first attacks the lower leaves in contact with the soil and then spreads throughout the plant.

With these lettuce gardening tips, you can stop this. The best way to prevent fungal and bacterial diseases is to rotate crops. Don’t plant lettuce in the same bed two years in a row.

Raised Bed of Lettuce

Perhaps the greatest threat to lettuce growing are deer. If there is no protection or netting over these lettuce plants, I can assure you that the deer will have a salad bar feast and everything will be gone. I specially recommend the plastic raised beds with pre-made nets from gardeners. These are what I use for my garden. These lettuce gardening tips will save you a ton of time that I had to learn by experience.

Lettuce Harvesting Tips

Lettuce can be harvested any time after true leaves form. For the best quality, better to pick early than late as lettuce allowed to grow too long may be bitter and tough.

To harvest crisphead, Batavia, and romaine varieties, cut the plant right at the soil line when mature, if you prefer to harvest full heads. You can do the same with butterhead and looseleaf lettuce, but I prefer to harvest only the outer leaves as needed. This keeps the plants in production longer. Try to harvest in the morning when the leaves are crisp, sweet, and full of moisture.

When the crown of a lettuce plant elongates, it’s about to bolt to produce seed and the plant has passed its prime. Yank the lettuce plant out, toss it on the compost pile, and replant the space with another crop like bush beans, or with another lettuce seedling.

Recipes and Storage

Primarily water, lettuce does not store well. For the best quality and flavor, use homegrown lettuce soon after harvest. This is particularly true for many of the looseleaf varieties, which wilt readily.

Combine crisp, crunchy lettuce varieties with soft, buttery-smooth types. For example, a blend of ‘Little Caesar,’ ‘Burpee Bibb’, ‘Mighty Red Oak Leaf,’ and ‘Crispy Frills’ makes a fine tossed salad with a variety of colors, shapes, and textures. With the lettuce gardening tips, you will be able to grow and try different blends until you find the ones that most delight your palate.

Furniture is the requirement of each and every home, office or just anywhere. There is not a place that stays without furniture. Today the craze for contemporary furniture has increased and people everywhere are looking for the best furniture for their homes and offices alike.

A huge range of furniture manufacturers come to one’s mind when shopping for brand furniture. One among them is the Mcferran group that manufacture high-end furniture that would suit every part of the home. Their prices are well matched in the furniture world and are a trusted warehouse for metropolitan designs.

Each homes requires a set of special furniture to suit each room. For instance for the bedroom there is a requirement for the best bedroom furniture, canopy beds, convertibles, day beds, chairs, bedside tables, cupboards and drawers, cabinets etc.

When one seeks furniture for the living room there are a lot to select, chairs, tables, closets, stands for televisions, show cases, center pieces, love seats, beautiful sofas and many more to decorate that beautiful living room.

Dining room furniture comprise of the dining table with all its grandeur and elegance surrounded by little pieces of matching furniture to make the dining room a perfect place to relax over a good meal with the entire family.

Dressers and closets, mirrors and chairs comprise the set of Mcferran furniture in the dressing room. Similarly one can decorate the entire home with all the rooms using the exclusive collection of Mcferran home furniture.

Home is where the heart is and hence it has to be well decorated so it would appear the most interesting place to come back to after a hard day’s work. Together with the family members furniture is what makes a house a home. Furniture and family are a perfect blend for a beautiful home.

There are different types of entertainment centers to suit your home décor and style. You can choose from modern and sleek to rustic and classic looks. You can easily find a home entertainment center of your choice.

Let us learn more about different types and styles of home entertainment centers.

A look at popular home entertainment center types

Armories

* Entertainment or TV armories provide a more classical look than most other types of entertainment centers.

* This piece of furniture offers closed, compact storage spaces which means electronic components can be put away from sight. They work well in formal living rooms.

* By letting a door, or set of doors, to be shut, these give a more formal look. They serve as excellent space savers.

Corner units

* Most of your rooms have one or more unused corners. You should employ corner entertainment centers to make optimum use of these unused corners.

* They act as the perfect solution for solving space crunch problem. They provide enough storage areas for your media equipment.

Entertainment walls

* Entertainment walls usually make up the most common and the largest category of prevalent home entertainment centers.

* They mostly include multiple pieces that together form single large piece of elegant furniture with a focal or central area used for storing the television.

* Entertainment walls often comprise multiple shelves and spotlights for illumination purpose.

Side-by-side units

* Side-by-side units are usually of around 60″ width.

* The right side of these units is typically utilized for holding the TV set, while the other one is used for storing electronic components and / or other media.

* Usually doors are there along one side or both as well (smaller doors along the bottom or top).

Along with the increasing concern on the need to preserve our environment more tightly, nearly all parts of modern people life have now being ruled. It is a good step to help people become aware and also feel like this is also their part to participate in this revolution of the environmentally friendly attitude. In housing management or architecture, the environmentally friendly attitude is also renewed. Green construction is a term that is given to this new trend of green and ecological attitude towards anything related to life style. Green construction is basically a concept that tries to break down the possibilities of making architecture with the essence of environmentally friendly attitude.

It also usually embodies the more detailed concept of green sustainable design which consists of guidance in how to consider architecture and building housing and managing it dealing with the urgent needs of our earth to breathe ad to be preserved by human being, the one, and us who contribute the highest level of earth destruction. It usually consists of some consideration including the place of housing, the interior design, the exterior design, the sanitary, and the materials and so on. It is valuable to make us feel relieving to buy something on this fragile earth.

The green building, from its name has explicitly talked about the need of any kinds of building that should meet environmental analysis on the appropriateness of the environment to be fitted with the need of the building design. By compromising the design without sacrificing the beauty of the building, the green building tries to fulfill people need along with the environmental needs to revitalize themselves. So, it is very important o consider the products of the building that must be very valuable regarding our environment vitality. It is a very solution for our present problems of buildings.

Furniture has always been the best asset of every house that helps in adding a good home environment. Give credits for the size, color, shapes and designs of every house because these will leave a very good impression to the owner as well as for all your guests and visitors. If you are planning to have a discount bar stools to be placed inside your house and sleep in Simmons Beauty Rest world class mattress, you will probably have to decide for the best and high end quality of these kind of furniture.

The following are smart advice that will help you choosing for the right kind of furniture and home decorations.

There are many styles of furniture and home decorations that are available in the market today. Its up to you where will you place it inside your house. The decorations and styles of furniture will depend on the interest and favorites of the person. There are also ready made products that available in markets with an affordable price and of best quality furniture materials too. But if you want for the cheapest prices and wants to have your own personalized furniture, you can go to furniture shops that offer services like this. Internet sources will also help you in purchasing for the right kind of furniture. It gives a lot of information with regards to the features, characteristics and elements of your chosen furniture. Just type in the search engine what you will want to buy and in just a second, you will see various websites that offers great discounts and variety of quality made furniture.

If you choose for furniture, make sure that it has a capacity to maintain its durability and flexibility. You can base this on the positioning of the furniture inside your house or in your room. It is more important to keep your furniture on areas with little accidents and breakage. Once furniture is use everyday, for example a cabinet, you are used to open and close the doors of it, this may cause breakage and are prone to damage some of its parts. Furthermore, the durability of the furniture is not merely based on where you will placed it in your house or the price but it is on how they are built with proper technique and best quality materials.

After you chose for your selected furniture and plan to buy one, it is important to take this as an advice. Check every parts of it making sure that it was properly built and with no damage. The finished product must be smooth, well painted with colors and has the ability of making it lasts long. Try to check if the applications of varnish or polish are well done. It denotes for a nice looking and attractive furniture. Ensure that every pieces of it has passed the standard of being durable and flexible. Always remember that you have the capacity to select and choose for the great products for furniture. Remember that when you budget for furniture, you have to base it on its everyday use.

Sooner or later, you will find yourself in possession of a nice and rather empty home. You stand in the large empty space you now call your own and try to envision how you want it to end up. Until very recently, I’ve played this game with minimal space.

Furnishing each tiny apartment became a delicate balancing act of what’s absolutely necessary to have and how to maximize the space I had. This time I had a new problem. I unpacked my tiny moving truck and I set all my stuff in the corner of my living room. There were a lot of decisions to be made on what to buy, how much to spend, and the best ways to make it all look great without taking out a loan. Visiting the big brand stores was a nightmare because even though it all looked great, the concept of actually paying for any of it would give anyone an ulcer. So where can you get cheap home furniture that doesn’t look awful and can actually make your new place into the home it’s meant to be? The answer to this question is to shop around for the best and most inexpensive quality pieces you can find.

Most importantly, be open to the prospect of shopping for used items. Perhaps used is the wrong term to adopt. What kind of strain would an end table or a bookshelf possibly be put under that it couldn’t pass for new? How about a picture frame or a lamp? Chances are these items were bought in some massive store with a giant advertising budget to pay. Many times people pay ridiculously inflated prices but how roughly was the furniture really handled while in their possession? Although my grandmother’s furniture probably a hundred years old it doesn’t have a nick or scratch on it.

In many cases, this furniture may have never been put to heavy use but purchased for show. Perhaps the piece in question was sat delicately in the living room while its owner remained diligently working away from home with no children and business trips to attend to. I have furnished my home with furniture from discount outlets and want ads. It looks beautiful and I can honestly say I’m thrilled with how it came out. I’m sure others have had similar experiences and are either looking for tips to do as I have or want to share their own inexpensive solutions for furnishing on a budget. Come check out my blog to see my cheap home furniture and to share your great ideas for home design, lighting solutions or artistic projects to make your home truly your own.

If you know of a college student, then swing by their apartment and take a look at the furniture in the room. I am sure that you will find pieces that do not match, pieces that have one or more food stains and pieces that look like they were left on the curb for the last garbage pick-up. So answer this question – does your living room furniture look like you are still in college? If your TV and DVD player are still sitting on upside down milk crates, then it may be time to start shopping for a real entertainment wall unit.

Your situation may not be as extreme as previously mentioned, but if you are out of college or just working full time, then you really have no excuses for beat up old furniture. Think about it, the way your home looks reflects the kind of person you are. Do you want people really thinking that your idea of a TV wall unit are milk crates and a board you nailed into the wall?

Now, before you jump online or run to your nearest furniture shop you should take a few things into consideration. After all this is a pretty big purchase and not something that you will want to take lightly. An entertainment wall unit should not only be physically appealing, it needs to be structurally sound as well. The last thing that you want is to have that nice TV come crashing down because of shoddy workmanship.

If you have a lot of heavy things you plan on placing in your new entertainment wall system, then you probably want to steer clear of any flimsy material like particle board being held up by a few nails or screws. If you have such things as a big screen TV or stereo receiver complete with a surround sound speaker system, then take a look at the material that the unit you are considering buying is made out of. Go through the product to see how it is constructed and how it is rated quality wise. Is it real wood or is it cheap particle board? What materials are being used to hold all of the pieces together?

Nothing would ruin a nice night watching DVDs than to have your large TV bend and break the shelf that it is on. While the material used in making TV wall units is of great concern, you should also look at what you plan on placing in it and on it. Does the color of your TV and other electronic items match? Are they too large and heavy for your entertainment wall system? Is there a chance that it may bend and break?

Ask yourself these questions before making the leap to buy an entertainment wall unit. Don’t take any chances that you next big purchase will end up costing you even more should it collapse and cause your precious electronics to fall and break.

Sauder home furniture is the best quality among all available in the market at present. The quality is is accepted all over the world and has even become a standard in the industry. Sauder is a brand name that has made a mark in the industry and is going strong. Furniture is one of the most important part of a home and it shows the life style of the members of that house. Good quality and durability is always preferred by everyone and it provides wide range of home and office products for people with different lifestyles. The home products includes computer desks, beds, executive desks and computer desks. The quality of products can be trusted with closed eyes and the company gives you guarantee about their products performance. When you buy a Sauder product you will receive a guarantee card along with that product and in case you are not satisfies with the quality of the product you will get a new one from the company in almost a week. Buying a branded furniture product is always a wise decision and it doesn’t matter if you buy it directly by visiting a store or online via some website, and this is one name that you would never want to miss.

The best thing about this company is that you can even place an order according to your requirement and you will get the product delivered to your place in a month. For people who often have to shift their houses due to some reason face huge problems dealing with their furniture as it may get damaged during the moving process but Sauder provides you with a perfect solution to it. you can disassemble the furniture product and move it to a new place and then assemble it back by following the instructions given in the manual. So in all the quality and the durability of Sauder home furniture products is unmatched and are highly recommended if you are really serious about your home.

Furniture plays a big role in amplifying the beauty of our homes. You should therefore take care of your home furniture as it is also a costly investment. If we take proper care of the furniture, it will look better and serve us for a long time. To help in maintaining your furniture, there are some dos and don’ts that you need to be aware of. Some of these are:

· Placing drinks and tea cups directly on the table may leave a very undesirable stain on it. Some stains are not easy to remove and may require that you scrub to remove them. This may lead to damage of the furniture. You should consider using coasters as they can improve life of the furniture.

· Do not expose leather furniture to direct sunlight. They may fade out their color due to the effect of suns rays. To protect your leather furniture from sunlight, use curtains and drapes

· Dusting of the home furniture is not advised as it can reduce their life. You are advised to make use of a clean cloth and/or by using polish.

· Do not keep shoes on the furniture, guests should be advised to leave their shoes at the shoe rack. Train kids to take care of your home furniture from an early age. They should also be trained to have their shoes off the furniture. Shoes leave dirt marks that are not so easy to clear. Removal of such stains not only time consuming, but also diminishes the beauty of the furniture.

· You should call for pest control services from time to time so that you can eliminate and prevent bed bugs and dust mites which may ruin your furniture.

· You should clean off spills from liquids immediately whenever this happens on your wooden furniture. The spills can mess the beauty of your home furniture.

· You should not move heavy home furniture by dragging directly; consider putting bumpers before dragging to prevent damage to both the furniture and the floor.

It is important to take care of your home furniture as it can save you a lot of money on repairs and replacements. For you to get a better service from your home furniture, you should ensure that you take utmost care in handling your furniture. These will ensure that you do not have broken and stained furniture in your home.

Hickory House is a mind-blowing source for shopping residential furniture and the ultimate destiny which can fulfill the desire of a dream home. The company shows the way for making your home the ideal place for living. When people purchase their furniture for their homes, they realize how a truly elegant home must look like. Hickory House furniture generates an environment of glamor and customers feel glad to use furniture products manufactured by them.

Hickory House provides conformation about the great convenience on usage of its products to Hickory furniture users. For last 60 years, Hickory Manufacturing Company has retained its status of a leading manufacturer in the furniture and bedding industry. Customers are glad that Hickory furniture assembling locations are situated across the world. As Hickory Company distributes its products at hundreds of retail stores, customers do not face any difficulties in making their access to all Hickory products. The company manufactures many exclusive styles of a large variety of furniture products, including; adjustable bedding, futon frames, adorable mattresses, roll-away beds and much more.

Hickory House furniture mart is a four story building where customers can find the complete furniture range. Here you can find awesome collection of home decoration accessories, lighting, wall papers and much more creative products to explore. Purchasing furniture from Hickory Furniture Mart serves with benefits of 80% reduction on product rates, as compared to retail stores. This mart has a record of welcoming 50,000 guests every year, and is popular in North Carolina. Hickory representatives are very prompt at their service and never give a chance to their customers to complain. The Mart operates from Monday to Saturday from 9am sharp to 5pm. Visitors love to be at this mart and are always glad to see new products which are being introduced by Hickory Manufacturers from time to time.

Hickory House never disappoints its customers on basis of product cost, and always provides negotiable and reasonable prices of furniture products to their customers. Customers must avail the privilege of clearance sale, offered by Hickory House on its anniversary. It is definitely an exciting news that clearance sale on several furniture products will be available from 17th to 20th February, 2012. The House is also offering special discounts on its products from May 4th to 6th. Furniture Festival and clearance sale will be held from July 27th to 29th. Hickory House provides the free facility of room planning guide to its customers to give an outlook to the homes as is meant to be.