Refresh Your Potting Soil and Save Money

Refreshing Potting Soil

Leftover potting soil can look a bit spent after a year or two, but experts agree that it still has life-giving potential, especially if you take the time to condition it properly.

Once you learn the basics of healthy soil, you'll be able to recharge last year's potting soil and save a lot of money by doing so.

Organic Mulch Right from your Yard!

If you're looking for an organic approach to your mulch, there are some good substitutes, and some of the ingredients for it can be found right in your own backyard!

Great Gifts for People who Can Food

Looking for a great gift for that relative or friend who is into canning food?

Great Gifts for Older Gardeners

We all want our older loved ones to keep healthy, and their love of gardening is a great way for them to do so.

The rigors of gardening, such as bending, stooping, kneeling, squatting, gripping, lifting and the like can be good exercise, but it can also be pretty taxing on an older body.

Creating a Rock Garden that Rocks --With Hostas!

A rock garden by design is a small plot (usually on a slope or man-made hill) designed to emphasize a variety of rocks, stones, and plants. Rock gardens can be made to blend into the landscape or they can be a great focal point area. Rocks are naturally beautiful, and with the right planning, your rock garden will look good year-round.

Top Ten Hostas to Brighten up your Shade Garden

Shady garden spaces don't have to be bland. There are the usual colorful shade perennials like the usual suspects like Astilbe, Foxglove and Bleeding Hearts. Those are good perennial shade garden plants to use in adding some bright colors to a shady garden spot.

But have you ever considered incorporating bright-colored hostas into your shade garden layout?

Epsom Salt in the Organic Garden

The popularity of organic gardening is increasing day by day. Organic gardeners have a philosophy that supports the health of the whole system of gardening, especially when it comes to dealing with the soil. As organic gardeners look for alternatives to synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, Epsom Salt has risen in popularity as an effective organic soil amendment for garden use.

You know you're a serious gardener when...

No homesteading garden is complete without growing the foundation of your salad garden, lettuce!

Growing lettuce is easy, takes up little space so you can easily tuck it between and under taller vegetables and even flowers.

Lettuce grows for many weeks in the mild weather of spring and fall, and it can be planted several times every season for a continual supply.

The Basics -- Lettuce

Annual Height: 9-12: Width: 6"

Lettuce comes in many different varieties including leaf lettuces, crispheads, summer crisps, icebergs, romaine, butterheads, and bibbs. Here's a short description of each.

Leaf lettuce. Forms a loose rosette of tender, sweet-tasting leaves in 4-6 weeks.

Summer Crisps. Loosehead of large, crisp leaves with good flavor.

Crispheads. A combination of romaine and iceberg types. Crunchy texture.

Romaines. Oblong leaves that form fairly loose, upright heads.

Butterhead and Bibb. Broad rosettes of tender, wavy leaves with a delicate flavor and creamy texture.

There are early varieties for spring planting and heat-tolerant varieties for Fall planting.

Starting Seeds of Lettuce

Seed Depth: 1/4" - 1/2". Need light to germinate.

Seed Spacing: Thin to 6-8" apart.

Days to Germinate: 7-14 days.

Days to Harvest: Leaf Lettuce 30-50 days.

Head Lettuce 100 days.

Seed Longevity: 2 Years

Sowing Indoors:

Start Romaine, iceberg and other head lettuces indoors 4-6 weeks before the average last frost date, making three small sowings at weekly intervals.

Sowing Outdoors:

Spring: Direct sow as soon as soil can be worked.

Fall: Direct sow 4-8 weeks before your average first frost date.

Salad Spinner

Winter Sowing:

If you haven't tried winter sowing, you're in for a treat. This method is especially good for sowing herbs and greens.

Winter sowing is basically sowing seeds in the bottom of a milk jug during the winter, setting the milk jugs outside for the winter and leaving them there until the seeds germinate in Spring.

For our separate article with details about Winter Sowing, click here.

Salad Tongs

Growing Lettuce Plants

Growing Temperature: 55-60 degrees during the growing season. Will survive light frosts.

Plant Spacing: Leaf Lettuce - 1" for continuous harvest.

Head Lettuce - 8"
Summer Crisps - 8-12"
Iceberg - 8-12"
Romaine - 10"
Butterhead - 8-10"
Bibb - 6-8"

Container Size: Shallow Roots. 6" deep.

Sun/Shade: Full sun for best yields. Tolerates part shade.

Soil: Plenty of compost will encourage fast growth.

Watering: Consistent water for the best flavor.
Lack of moisture causes bitterness.

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Fertilizing

Since greens are such a fast-growing crop, as long as they are grown in rich soil there may be little need for further fertilization.

That said, a liquid balanced fertilizer when the seedlings are 4" tall will give your greens a boost and carry them through their short season. After the temperatures warm, though, the leaves of Lettuce will turn bitter and no amount of fertilizer will help at that point.

Growing Tips

Extending the Growing Season:

Start romaine, iceberg and other head lettuce indoors 4-6 weeks before the average last frost date, making three small sowings at weekly intervals.

Set out the seedlings and direct sow leaf lettuce outdoors at 2-week intervals. If you plan to harvest only leaves, sow entire loose-leaf crop at once.

Harvesting Lettuce

Leaf Lettuces. Harvest outer leaves as soon as they're a usable size.

Harvest entire plant at 2" above soil level for cut-and-come-again.

Head Lettuces. Cut the head away from the stalk when the head is still firm. Head lettuce will be freshest when harvested in the morning.

Salad/Food Crispers

Storing Lettuce For Later Use

Tendergreen leaves, like Lettuce, can't be preserved well.

FreshLoose leafed lettuce will store 7-10 days in a crisper.

Head lettuce will store 1-3 weeks in the crisper

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To read the other articles in our Homesteading 101 Growing Your Greens series, click on the name below:

Arugula

Endive

Kale

Mustard Greens

Radicchio

Spinach

Swiss Chard

Where to go next!

Great Garden Articles -- Full List!
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Best Hostas for Beginners

Best Hosta Choices for Beginners

One of the reasons that hostas have remained so popular in the perennial garden is the beauty of their leaves. For the first-time hosta grower, though, there are some hostas that are easier to grow and care for than others.

Best Soil for Hosta Plants

If you've heard that hostas can grow in any soil type, even poor soil, that's not exactly true. While established hostas tend to become comfortable in any soil over time, they certainly won't thrive and retain the beautiful leaves that you grow them for. Young hostas planted in poor soil will eventually succumb to disease and die.

If you want your hostas to thrive, the key is soil that is rich. The ideal soil pH for hostas ranges from 6.5 to 7.5, which actually means it's slightly acidic to slightly alkaline.