Imagine going into your bedroom wardrobe and not finding a spot to display your clothing or finding shelves or cabinets to wrap your folded garments, clothes, and accessories away? This won’t be easy to keep the clothing sorted without the framework and storage structures in place. The same laws extend to warehouses! This often appears that the best thing about storerooms is their weakness: they always become a blank canvas. These become open space or closet deficient in organizing, sometimes resulting in being a drop zone and landing area for bins and things to build up over time.
When it causes you a headache when you try to search and grab it, it might be time to arrange your storeroom and unpack it. Here are some of the tips you can consider to organize your storeroom.
6 Smart Organizing Tips for a Messy Store Room:
1. Categorize and De-clutter the area
You want to arrange similar things together, close to having sorted in certain parts of your house. This physical activity can help you see just what you possess, how much of it, and what to consider when determining when to go in the garage. Gather your childhood mementos, gather your holiday decor, take out your luggage and travel supplies, dig out service pieces, etc. Categorize the things that you don’t need anymore. While making the area clean, do not forget to spray a Responsible Pest & Scorpion Control medicine to make your storeroom pests free.
2. Widen the vertical space
Don’t confine yourself to a room on the board. Usually, the storerooms have relatively high ceilings, so step up. The more things that you can push into more upper shelving or shelves, the more floor room you can open up and bring in your work workers, which is also a bonus.
3. Make adjustable shelves
They are perfect for tiny rooms because you can change the shelves’ heights to match different storage requirements and wishes. Make some storage unit shelves to get things placed easily. This will give the room a more approachable and organized look.
4. Place the most important things in front
When putting something, you need it more frequently in front of you, and you would be able to get to them faster. Often, moving boxes or objects further would then be needless to enter the purpose you seek. It does away with unnecessary confusion and discomfort.
5. Make Labels
The trick to an efficient storage room has to learn where each object is. It’s possible to lose track of where they are, no matter how beautiful the memory can be. Making labels for your room’s storage choices allows it more accessible to easily find items and recognize where to place new products when you buy them.
6. Keep checking and Clearing your storeroom
To stop the hoarding of products, periodically visit your storeroom to give away outdated goods or give away things that have not been used for more than half a year. It will keep the items from collecting in the storage room, which will motivate you to tidy up more effectively.
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Carrots are root vegetables. They vary from purple to red in color but most commonly found are bright orange ones. The orange color of carrot is due to its high content of beta-carotene. This helps suffice our body with necessary levels of vitamin A, which is required for proper functioning of our immune system.
Yes, we can grow carrots all year round! Also, you may grow it anywhere, even in our small kitchen garden or as a potted plant.
You must know how to grow and harvest carrot before you start the procedure of producing carrots yourself. I conducted various kinds of research including reading online resources and talking to farmers in my town before going ahead with carrots plantation. This is so because carrots are a low-acid plant and can catch contamination easily, which may make it inappropriate for human consumption.
When can we Grow Carrots?
Carrots are biennial plants that are they grow twice in a season. However, the seeds and flowers grow only in cold season. They take ten to twelve weeks to reach their full growth. They can be sowed in spring just before two weeks of the last frost date.
In cold climate, we can continue to plant them every three weeks till mid-summer. Then again they can be sowed in summer for winter products that are due in next ten to twelve weeks.
Preparing the soil
First, you need to judge the solid where you want to plant your carrots. If the soil is sandy or clay soil, then it is not appropriate for growing carrots. Sandy soil and clay soil cannot retain nutrients and lacks good soil structure, which makes them inappropriate for growing carrots. Salty and loam soil is the best kind of soil for growing any vegetables. There is another variety of soil that is chalky soil. This is also not appropriate for growing carrots due to its alkaline nature.
Read also: Does Organic Gardening Improve Soil Quality?
Sowing Carrots
Before sowing carrots, you need to dig in the soil well to about twelve to fifteen inches. Once done, you can introduce some earthworms and crawling critters who make the soil appropriate for growing carrots.
Earthworms consume the organics from the soil and then scatter it throughout the soil to make the soil more fertile. Similarly, crawling critters would keep the bugs and insects away from the soil from harming the crop. You should be cautious about using chemicals to kill insects as they also take away the good part of the soil. Always organic gardening is recommended for the growth of any crop as organic gardening improves soil, its overall structure and gets it ready for next cycle as well.
You can sow your carrot seeds into the sowing beds created three inches apart.
The carrot seeds are very small so to distribute them evenly; you can mix them up with the sand and then sprinkle them into the sowing
Cover the field with some warm blanket or a shield to avoid the tiny creatures from ruining your crop.
This should be kept covered for at least three weeks to let the healthy growth of the crop.
Carrot Sprouts
While you decide to plant carrots, you should also be aware of how a carrot sprout looks like to differentiate it from other sprouts or just weed. The sprout is breaking out of the soil may be of cabbage or potato or some grass. Well, then how does carrot sprouts look like? You can very easily identify them. From the perspective of their appearance, they look like ferns or palm leaves.
Well if that’s not all for you, then you can take the leave in your palm and crush it with your nails. Now smell the crush, and it will be like one of carrot. That’s how you can very easily identify the carrot sprouts from other growing vegetables and weeds in your kitchen garden.
Harvesting Carrots
You can judge the growth of the carrots by looking at their roots. The size of the roots is a good indicator of the growth of your carrots. You can pull them out in three weeks to enjoy baby carrots of wait for next ten to twelve weeks for fully grown carrots.
Storing Carrots
Now is the question of how to store carrots for prolonged use. You can seal the carrots in a polythene bag and store them in the coolest part of your refrigerator. One should never wash carrots until they need to be used as added moisture ruins carrot structure earlier. You can also store carrot in a box and cover it with a layer of sand. This will also help you preserve carrots for long.
You can very well enjoy your garden-fresh carrots all year round once you know how to sow and harvest them. You can use them in a variety of ways in your kitchen like caramelize then with sugar syrup or bake a carrot cheesecake or eat them raw as part your daily salads.
We have a lot of questions making rounds by our readers; therefore, in case, you have any further questions on how to grow carrots, or anything related to sowing or harvesting or storing them, then please comment below.
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Since lettuce plants grow best in cool growing seasons, most lettuce varieties are classified as spring or fall greens. However, if the longer days are keeping your lettuce plant producing leaves well into the summer and it hasn't bolted yet, here are some excellent tips to follow to maximize your harvest.
Taking individual leaves off the plant is one way to increase its yield. Alternatively, you could sow in succession every two weeks in the early spring or fall to continue the harvest. To offer lettuces shade and protection from the hot summer sun and high temperatures, a third method is to interplant with a taller crop. Lastly, cultivators should seek out cultivars known for their slow bolting, like the looseleaf varieties "Slobolt" and "Sierra."
Here is how to harvest lettuce so you can eat some leaves right away and encourage the plant to continue growing more.
How To Harvest Lettuce?
If you want to harvest lettuce and do not know how to go about it, here are all the details. Follow the steps closely to get the healthiest and crispiest lettuce for your salads and sandwiches.
Plant Looseleaf Varieties
Your lettuce variety should be ready to harvest in 35 days, according to the seed packet, which means you should have large enough leaves to pick a little more than a month after planting. By regularly picking the outer leaves, you may be able to extend the harvest until late June if you sow seeds in March or April.
Begin Harvesting Early in The Season
Young lettuce plants will be harmed by light frost, but mature plants can withstand it. If you live in an area where there is no winter frost, you can plant early and begin harvesting the outer leaves when they get to be 4 or 6 inches long. Your harvest can last up to 30 days longer if you plant and harvest early.
Pick Lettuce in The Morning
It is ideal to harvest lettuce early in the day to avoid the leaves wilting due to the intense heat. The leaves are crispest and flavorful in the morning because they contain the most water.
Look For Plants with Large Outer Leaves
The center of the crown is where the new growth starts on the lettuce. You must remove the largest, oldest leaves that are about 4-6 inches long. You will find these leaves on the outside of the plant.
Cut or Pinch The Outer Leaves
At 1/4 to 1/2 inch from the base, pinch off each outer leaf. To break the leaf off the crown, apply just enough pressure with your thumb and forefinger. Another option is to use a sterile, sharp scissor or snipping tool, though there is disagreement about whether doing so accelerates the browning of cut edges.
Harvest Until it Flowers
When older, mature leaves are consistently removed, the lettuce plant is encouraged to grow new leaves in their place. Harvesting individual leaves is possible until the plant produces a flower stalk, which indicates that it is ready to bolt and set seed. Lettuce turns bitter once it bolts.
When to Harvest Lettuce?
As soon as the lettuce is large enough to pick, it can be harvested. A seed packet will typically tell you how many days it will take to harvest. For the "cut and come again" method of harvesting loose leaves, standard-size varieties are the most effective. When outer leaves are 4 to 6 inches tall, that's the best time to begin harvesting.
There are many varieties of lettuce seeds available, including blends and mesclun mixes. The best varieties to plant for a continuous harvest are called bi-colored, spotted, or loose-leaf lettuces in green and red or burgundy tones. The following are some varieties you might want to try:
Black Seeded Simpson
Green Salad Bowl
Freckles
Lolla Rossa
Gourmet Mesclun Blend
Deer Tongue
Garden Leaf Blend
Loose leaf lettuce varieties yield the best results from the cut-and-come-again method. Red, green, and oak leaf lettuce are a few examples. Additionally, you can wait to pick until a full head has matured or harvest early leaves from loose-heading varieties like butterhead and romaine.
When and How to Gather Lettuce Heads
The growth habit of head lettuce is akin to that of cabbage. In order to form a dense, rounded, or clumped shape, younger leaves emerge from the center, and older leaves form layers. There are two types of head lettuce: loosehead (similar to romaine) and crisphead (like iceberg).
Let the crisphead varieties mature for a single harvest and keep an eye on them in accordance with the days to harvest specified on the seed packet. When the heads are dense and the appropriate size, they are ready to be picked.
If you remove the outer leaves once or twice, loosehead lettuces will still head. However, the size of the fully mature head may decrease as a result. These lettuces can produce a head of looser layering or wrapping leaves (butterhead) or a clump of tall, straight leaves (romaine).
Remove crispheads by chopping off the stem just below the center. Loose heads can be trimmed similarly or removed, with roots and subterranean stems cut back to the leaf base, depending on size.
What Happens If a Flower Stalk Bolts
A lettuce plant will eventually shoot up a flower stalk in the center, a sign that it has reached the end of its life and is ready to bolt, or bloom, and set seed. Though they might still be edible, the lettuce leaves are starting to get tough and bitter. There is no stopping flowering once this process has begun. Throw away the plant and plant again if the weather permits.
Types of Lettuce
There are four types of lettuce you can choose from when choosing which to grow: leaf, butterhead (loosehead), romaine, and head lettuce.
When it comes to cultivation and harvesting, the main distinction is that leaf lettuce crops yield several harvests, whereas head lettuce varieties, such as iceberg, romaine, and butterhead, only yield one harvest. Leaf lettuces are, therefore, a favorite among home gardeners since you can grow them in raised beds, on the ground, or in patio containers.
Keep in mind that lettuce is a cool-season crop, so you should schedule your harvest for the spring when the temperature is still cool. Such temperatures are usually around 70 degrees. Find out when the first frost occurs in your area each fall and plant appropriately. Starting fall crops from seed indoors and moving them outside as the weather cools down may be the best option.
Seek out head lettuce cultivars such as Crisphead and Iceberg that you can grow from seed. In roughly six weeks, the lettuce will reach maturity and be ready for harvest after the seeds have germinated in 10 to 21 days.
One loose butterhead variety that you can grow from seed or seed tape is called Buttercrunch. It takes 65 days to be ready for harvest.
Vivian is one of the romaine varieties that yields soft, flavorful leaves. Directly sow seeds in the garden in the spring. Start seeds indoors in the fall and transplant them to your garden.
Varieties of loose-leaf lettuce grow quickly and are enjoyable to experiment with in salads, sandwiches, and other culinary creations. Look for mesclun mixes and heirloom cultivars such as "Black Seeded Simpson." Many come in simple-to-grow seed tapes that can be harvested in roughly seven weeks.
How to Harvest Leaf Lettuce?
When the weather gets chilly, you can harvest salad from a leaf lettuce crop in your home garden whenever you're ready to eat. You can harvest an entire crop of lettuce at once by waiting for it to mature. However, cutting fresh lettuce leaves off as they grow is the easiest way to prepare them for consumption at any time.
Depending on the variety, lettuce leaves should be harvested when they reach a length of 3 to 6 inches. Gather leaves continuously until the lettuce plant "bolts." This indicates that the plant has focused its energy on developing seeds and flowers, and as a result, the leaves typically develop tough stems and a bitter taste.
How to Harvest a Full Head of Lettuce?
A lettuce plant can continue to grow until it produces a full head of leaves. Use the "one and done" approach when harvesting head lettuce. Just make a clean, above-soil knife cut across the entire head of lettuce at the base of the plant. For this, a harvest knife comes in handy.
Remember the seed packet and note the maturity or harvesting days. As your plants get bigger, keep an eye out for indicators of maturity, which are typically firm, full heads. Harvest in the spring before it gets too hot, usually when the daytime highs hit 70 degrees Fahrenheit. The bitter taste of the leaves and the mushy head of lettuce can result from warm weather.
How to Store Lettuce?
When the lettuce is inside, you can use a colander to wash the leaves and thick cotton towels to dry them so you can use them in salads and sandwiches. In case you cultivate a lot of lettuce, investing in a salad spinner would be wise. It helps dry and wash Lettuce quickly.
Lettuce leaves without water should be refrigerated. For most greens, store the leaves in a loose plastic bag for approximately a week. When the salad greens are ready to be eaten, give them a good rinse in several runs of cold water and then pat dry.
How to Harvest Lettuce Microgreens?
Microgreens are incredibly simple to harvest! When the first true leaves appear, after ten to fifteen days of planting the seeds, they will be ready. When the microgreens are two to three inches long, harvest them if you are measuring them by height.
Investigating the flavor profiles of the microgreens at various heights is enjoyable. Cut the entire plant ½ inch above the soil line with a pair of scissors or grass shears. If you need more inspiration, check out our many other interesting gardening tips for growing microgreens, like growing lettuce microgreens!
How to Harvest Romaine Lettuce?
The leaves of romaine lettuce (also known as cos) have the perfect amount of crunch or crispness. The lettuce plant's outer leaves can be harvested as it grows. The leaves can be chopped off one to two inches above the ground. Gathering these tender green leaves now will give the lettuce more time to ripen before full plants can be harvested.
Before Romaine lettuce reaches maturity, it can take 55–70 days to grow from seed. To determine when the lettuce is ripe, examine it directly. When the romaine lettuce leaves are 6 to 8 inches tall, the ribs are firm and juicy, and the leaves have formed a tightly compacted head, the lettuce is ready for harvesting. To test if the lettuce head is firm, squeeze it.
Overripe head lettuce will be tough, while young head lettuce will be soft. Harvest by making a cut an inch above the ground, saving the crown for a subsequent harvest. You can harvest the lettuce head by digging up the entire plant if it is nearing the end of its garden lifespan.
Read More: Everything You Need To Know About Harvesting Basil!
Loose Leaf lettuce
The harvest window for leaf lettuce varieties is quite broad. After planting, the young, baby lettuce leaves can be harvested 25 days later, and the plant will mature fully in 50–60 days. Make sure your crop is harvested prior to it bolting.
Since you can harvest loose-leaf lettuce more than once during the growing season, it's ideal for repeated harvesting. You can chop the entire lettuce plant 1-2" above the soil line once the leaves reach 4". In 10 to 15 days, fresh leaves that have sprouted from the base will be ready for harvesting again if the crown is left intact. Try spreading out your seed sowings and doing multiple sowings to ensure a consistent harvest all season long.
If you want to preserve the crisp flavor of the young baby greens, you should sow them again. Another method of harvesting involves leaving the inner leaves to grow while pruning the young leaves on the outside of the head for greens. When the plants are 4 inches tall, you can begin harvesting lettuce by cutting them just above the soil line.
Crisphead Lettuce
When grown locally, crisphead or iceberg lettuce makes for incredibly tasty salad greens. You might not get a whole head of lettuce, but this can be a cut-and-come-again harvest. A single harvest is more appropriate for this green lettuce. After planting, there is a 50 to 75-day window for harvest.
Iceberg lettuce can be harvested as soon as the head appears before the outer leaves turn brown and as soon as the center feels firm, and the leaves are compacted tightly. Before the crisp lettuce starts to open and the seed stalk starts to form, harvest it. More importantly, if you see the lettuce beginning to bolt—a common issue in hot weather—or the seed stalk, harvest it right away.
Harvesting iceberg lettuce is best done by digging up the entire plant and then cutting off the stalk. Because of its thick stem, this lettuce plant can be challenging to harvest while it is still in the ground. If you decide to harvest the lettuce while it's still in the ground, please take care not to harm it. You can cut the stem just below the leaves by lifting the lettuce upwards.
Wrapping Up
Nothing compares to the sheer satisfaction of harvesting and regrowing fresh, new lettuce from the same plant. You are far superior to other lettuce owners if you can figure out how to harvest lettuce correctly so that it keeps growing.
Thus, if you want to become a rich lettuce farmer, make sure you constantly and meticulously follow all the above steps! If you have thoughts to share or questions to ask about how to harvest lettuce, then please leave a comment below. We would love to hear from you.
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Exploring Ideas For A Biophilic Home Design
Outdoor living is in, especially during the sweltering summer months. Turn a staid, screened-in porch into a tranquil oasis with some comfortable furnishings and ambient decor. These are our favorite tips for creating a screened space you'll want to live in all year long.
Treat It as Your Home:
Don't be tempted to skimp on furniture for your screened-in porch. Many homeowners rely on basic patio furniture rather than adding comfortable cushioned couches and chairs that create an inviting space. Outdoor poufs are a versatile choice that does triple duty as extra seating, a footrest, or a convenient side table. Choose options with weatherproof fabric that provides easy maintenance and care.
The cozier you are on the screened-in porch, the more likely that you (and your guests) will want to spend time there. Think of this area as a natural extension of your home. When choosing furniture, picture how you want to use the space. If you plan to entertain, are you envisioning cocktail parties or boisterous family dinners? Pick your pieces accordingly.
Add Accessories:
Those little details are a major part of making the patio feel like an extension of your indoor space. Think colorful throw pillows, durable rugs, side tables for snacks and beverages, and accent lighting. Choose colors that coordinate with your indoor palette for a seamless transition from inside to out. Pillows and throws in various textures will add visual and tactile interest. Potted plants add more life to space while emphasizing its natural elements.
Keep It Cool:
For a three-season porch, you can use from spring to fall, consider screened-in, porch-cooling options to see you through the hottest days of August. Ceiling fans are more effective than a window AC unit, and they create a cooling breeze that will provide relief. Evaporative coolers lower the temperature by using humidity. With these units, cold air is blown over water droplets that chill the air as they evaporate.
You can also install shades that can be pulled down to keep the cool air in during the summer and to block the cold air out on chillier nights. Look for transparent versions that will preserve the outdoor feel of the porch.
Promote Relaxation:
Both real and battery-powered candles create a romantic light that enhances the porch's appeal. String lights provide a similar function. If your home is in a suburban or an urban area that tends to get noisy, consider outdoor speakers through which you can play relaxing ambient noise, such as ocean sounds or birds chirping. You can also plant a row of trees or shrubs to dampen the noise, provided it doesn't block your view. Consider adding a fireplace to your screened-in porch, which has the added benefit of allowing you to enjoy the space when the weather cools.
By incorporating these design ideas to add life to your screened-in porch, you're expanding the usable square footage of your home and increasing its value. Best of all, you'll have a space your entire family can enjoy together for years to come.
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