Q&A: Why is it so hard to grow lettuce

Q. Why can't I grow lettuce? I planted salad greens but most of them died while two plants grew into steroid-pumped tall shrubs with flowers.


A. Lettuce remember there is a reason we don't ALL grow our own food in gardens and try to subsist from grow-your-own greens. Unlike its good friend the tomato, lettuce is much easier to buy at the supermarket than grow in our own garden or courtyard. While it is true lettuce will grow in pots, a humid Sydney summer is rarely kind to leafy green delicates.
Lettuce has a shallow root system so reacts quickly to heat, humidity or water stress. Cool-weather-loving lettuce varieties tend to bolt to seed when planted during a warm Sydney summer. And most lettuce can't stand being blown about in the wind. It's best grown by those who can offer tender loving care and understand the growing conditions needed.
There are some easy varieties to grow, like cos or rocket, which have tougher leaves and can withstand Sydney heat but it's important to select the right plant for your soil, weather conditions and patience.


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QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see."
- Leonardo da Vinci

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POST OFF What makes a house a home?

There are so many platitudes and cliches about homes, houses and properties:

"It takes hands to build a house, but only hearts can build a home"

"A house is made of walls and beams; a home is built with love and dreams."

"A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body."

Is this all a load of codswallop?

I interviewed the Australian Psychological Society about this, as they had studied why we choose to live where we do, and they found that function and convenience had more to do with why we choose our homes.

But with houses and property costing us an ever-increasing portion of our incomes, what features, factors and ideals make a house a home?

Is it budget?

Is it location? Most of us need to be close to work or schools or uni.

Is it being a part of a community or village of other people who understand and like you?

I really don't know the answer, except to say that it is something that you feel inside. 

Demographer Bernard Salt says our property ideals are related to our lifestyles - or the lifestyle we aspire to.

He says more of us want to live in places where we can be surrounded by people "like us" rather than being too worried about whether we have the fourth bedroom or the triple garage.

I suspect that every person has different ideals of home, different lifestyle needs and wildly varying ideas of decent accommodation. Which is why it's always so hard to find the perfect "home".

Since most Australians buy established homes (that's the fancy word for "second-hand"), a property is usually tapered to someone else's ideals rather than your own.

When I bought my current home, I had to remove the carpet that smells like four truckers rubbed their armpits on it and scrub the kitchen clean. Oh, and put in a bathroom that didn't look like a kitty litter tray.

"Home" isn't just something that's three bedrooms or is in a particular suburb - it has to have all those other quirks, tweaks and little things that determine whether a property will suit you and your lifestyle, don'tcha think? What makes your home "home"?

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RENOVATION COST-SPIRATION: Paint, the cheap option

What's the cheapest renovation? 
Paint, paint and more paint. Painting is the most cost-effective spruce-up a property owner can organise. For $600, you will get more bang for your buck by doing the job yourself - but you need to dedicate plenty of time to the job. A good rule of thumb for a DIY painter is to spend as much time preparing your surfaces (cleaning with sugar soap, filling cracks and sanding smooth) as painting them.
There are so many paint colours on those charts that I feel dazzled - how on earth are you supposed to select the right paint colour without remorse?
Most paint manufacturers now have websites dedicated to helping you. Dulux has a great site and inspirationspaint.com.au also offers good colour advice. The real key to choosing is to buy a test pot (which usually costs less than $10) in your desired shade and paint it on the wall next to other shades you are considering. The light in the room will determine whether the colour works. Light from various directions is quite different so it is worth considering the direction the windows of a room face. Fluorescent lights can cast a bluish-green light while halogens offer a yellow-white cast. The number of coats of paint, and whether you are choosing an easy-to-clean acrylic or dense, colour-rich enamel, will also determine the final outcome of how a colour will look in a room.

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"Architecture is a visual art, and the buildings speak for themselves."

- Julia Morgan

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Cleaning for crawling babies: how to keep floors clean

Q I have a baby that’s just started crawling – his clothes are so dirty at the end of the day that I have realized I need to improve my cleaning, but don’t want to use harsh products.

A. American writer Dierdre Imus, who founded the Environmental Center for Pediatric Oncology and wrote Greening Your Cleaning, says the floor is often the most dangerous place in a house for babies and pets. Imus insists that the gasses given off by cleaning products and our furniture, paint or curtains often hover down at floor level, ready for the most vulnerable household members to breathe in. Ick. Carpets should be vacuumed at least once a week – probably more if you have an allergy sufferer in the house – and ideally with a HEPA filter vacuum cleaner that won’t recirculate all the dust and dirt.  Hard floors such as timber, tiles or vinyl are easier to keep clean by daily sweeping. One of the best ways to keep floors clean is to make like the Chinese and insist shoes stay off inside the house – that way dirt stays on the bottom of people’s shoes instead of being tracked in to your floors. You can also put small rugs and door mats at the entrance to capture as much dirt as possible.


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Q&A: Painting tips for tired renovators

Q. Painting is the worst job I have ever done. My arms ache, the cat walked through the paint tray and now everything's a mess. How can it be easier?

A. 
Here are some painting tips I've learnt over the years:
 

• Cut down the number of coats by tinting the primer or undercoat. Make your first priming coat half the colour density of the final shade to get better coverage.

• Cover odd-shaped bits of the room you want to keep paint- free with plastic wrap.
- Painters seem divided over whether to use masking tape to protect carpets and skirtings. Most pros have such a steady hand they don't need it but DIYers need all the help they can get. You will need good, low-tack masking tape.
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• When painting a ceiling, wrap an old towel or cloth around the brush and secure with a rubber band. There'll be no more paint running down the handle.

• If you don't paint the top and bottom door edges, timber doors can swell in damp weather. Instead of taking them off their hinges, use a scrap of carpet as a paintbrush instead and slip it under the door.

Go to the gym in advance and prep all those arm muscles. Buy Deep Heat. Find someone to massage you the next day. You'll be grateful that you listened.

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Pictures: Photo by Sam McAdams, Inside Out magazine