Renovation & Design
Renovation & Design
Lettuce not forget to thin out seedlings
A new gardener, who is trying her hand at vegetable gardening, planted seeds of lettuce, carrot and radish. Now that they're all sprouting, she's not sure how many to leave growing and how many to thin out.In fact, she and her spouse are having a bit of a "discussion" about whether to thin at all.
Much as I hate to step into the middle of a family debate, you need to thin out the vegetable seeds that have sprouted.
Usually when we sow seeds directly into the soil, we sprinkle in a lot more than needed, in the belief that this will ensure a good crop. If most of the seeds germinate, the plants crowd each other. This is not a good thing.
Let's take the example of lettuce. If a lot of small plants are growing close to each other, none will ever develop into the normal full-sized head of lettuce that we want to harvest. If you think about the size of the mature plant, a lettuce can occupy a space anywhere from 15 to 30 centimetres across.
Your seedlings should really be thinned out in two separate operations.
The first thinning would take out everything except a few of the strongest seedlings, about 7 centimetres apart. Just pinch off or cut the unwanted ones at ground level.
This seems ruthless, but in time, you'll learn to spread fewer seeds in the first place.
Allow the plants you leave behind to develop for a couple of weeks until their leaves start to touch each other. At this point, use a trowel to transplant every other seedling to another row, spacing them 15 centimetres apart. You'll be leaving behind the alternate seedlings in a similar spacing.
Now you have a bed of properly spaced lettuce seedlings that will be able to expand to their full potential.
The same thing applies for carrots, radishes and anything else that you plant from seed.
Just imagine how much space each plant will take up when it's mature, and leave at least that amount of space between the seedlings.
The only exception to this rule is if you're planting what's known as mesclun. This is a mixture of several salad leaf crops, like arugula, spinach, chard, endive, mache, radicchio and sorrel.
Take some of each of these seeds and mix them up before sowing. Plant them in a rectangular patch rather than in rows, and sow the seeds close together, about 1.5 centimetres apart. Cover the sown seeds with a light sprinkling of sifted soil, and keep the area moist at all times.
Once the seedlings start to grow, harvest them right away by clipping off one section of the patch of the small tender leaves. Clip a different section every time you harvest, in rotation. This way, you give time for the previously harvested sections to grow.
The leaves never get a chance to get very large, partly because they are crowded and partly because you're clipping them frequently. The small leaves stay tender and provide a delicious mixture of sweet and tart tastes in a salad.
-- Canwest News Service
Renovation & Design
A guide to a thorough summer cleaning
Early summer is an excellent time to take on outdoor maintenance tasks that have been on the back burner awaiting warmer weather.Right about this time of year, we pull out our trusty pressure washer and go blasting around the house on a cleaning spree. Beyond a good sprucing up, a power washing will reveal cracks, gaps and wear-and-tear to tackle next.
Here's a guide to a thorough summer cleaning:
Pressure wash
A pressure or power washer uses water under high pressure to strip away grime on all sorts of surfaces. Sometimes you can combine bleach or other cleaning agents, but we find that water is all we need for most tasks.
Power washing a roof can be daunting and dangerous. Unless you work well with heights, we suggest that you hire someone to do the work for you. If you choose to take it on yourself, wear rubber-soled boots and use a safety harness securely anchored to the opposite side of the roof and your waist.
After the spray-down, your gutters will probably be filled with all sorts of muck from the roof. Since a power washer may be too powerful for this tight area, we suggest that you use a garden trowel along with a garden hose to thoroughly clean the gutters and downspouts. Use the garden hose as a snake to flush downspouts and drain pipes.
Next, move on to cleaning eaves, soffits, siding, windows and trim to remove grit, grime, spider webs and wasps nests. Work from the bottom up to prevent potential streaking and staining.
A pressure washing with water is all that will be needed for most siding. Vinyl siding may require a bit of detergent and water and some scrubbing with a nylon truck brush to remove oxidation or staining. Then rinse thoroughly. We like to leave the window screens in place for ease of cleaning and then, once clean, remove them to clean windows and frames.
Move on to power wash porches, patios, paths, decks, barbecues, outdoor furniture and other finishes that could benefit from a good cleaning.
Make repairs
Beyond a good sprucing up, a power washing will reveal cracks in stucco, gaps and bare spots in siding, loose mortar, deteriorating window screens and missing caulking. There's no better time to make these repairs:
Repair hairline cracks in stucco using an exterior-grade latex caulk. The secret is to slightly dampen the area with water and inject a small amount of caulk into the crack. Use an old paintbrush and water to remove excess caulk to prevent the caulking from appearing through the paint. We like to place texturing sand in the palm of our hand and blow it onto the surface of the fresh caulk to have it blend in more thoroughly to the surrounding finish.
Use a high-quality exterior caulk to fill in gaps in siding and around windows and doors. Less is more: Inject the caulking into the joint and remove the excess with a damp finger and/or sponge.
Remove any loose paint that may remain after the power washing by scraping or sanding. Fill in voids using an exterior grade vinyl spackling compound. Allow it to dry, then sand and prime with a high-quality exterior grade primer/sealer and apply a coat or two of finish.
Repair damaged or missing mortar using a mortar patch and a jointer -- a narrow trowel that gives mortar that smooth, uniform look. Be sure to dampen the mortar first to prevent dry mortar from drawing moisture out of the fresh mortar, which can result in cracking and poor adhesion. Seal the brick or stone and mortar with a high-quality exterior grade brick and stone sealer to prevent freeze and thaw damage in winter.
If your window screens were old and brittle, chances are good that pressure washing them all but destroyed them and rescreening is in order. If the frames are in good shape, all that is needed is new vinyl screen material and rubber spline -- the cord that holds the screen into the frame. Working on a flat surface, place the new screen material over the frame and push the spline material into the groove with a spline roller. Make sure the material is taught.
Finish up your cleaning frenzy with window washing. Never wash windows in the sun or in the heat of the day. We like using a touch of vinegar in warm water, and we have found newsprint to be the best wiping material. Here's a secret for streak-free windows. Wipe the inside of the windows vertically and the outside horizontally. If streaks do appear, you'll immediately know what side of the glass they are on and can readily eliminate them.
-- Associated Press
Renovation & Design
Bonsai pachira a tree that money grows on
The money tree used to be known as pachira aquatica, a popular plant as a bonsai. The bonsai pachira was developed by David Fukumoto, who planted them on Hawaiian lava rock, roots exposed, and sold them all over the world.Fukumoto regularly treated his plants with a fungicide and, as it happened, received a hot batch of fungicide that effectively wiped out his dream of dominating the popular bonsai market. Whatever was in that batch was to destroy all the work Fukumoto had accomplished over many years.
But a phoenix rose from the ashes in the 1990s when Fukumoto once again pooled resources and, with encouragement, again started up his business. Today, the tiny bonsai he created has developed into much more ambitious, more expensive products.
The money tree caught on as a novelty, however, and was brought back by enterprising growers in Asia in a braided trunk form with the common name of money tree.
It is native to wetland areas of Central and South America, where it flowers and bears fruit. The leaves, flowers, and fruit pods are all edible and the pods contain nuts tasting much like the peanut.
The flowers themselves are indeed showy; they are rather large, opening up in peeled-back petals revealing hair-like stamens that look like a paintbrush.
Most of the pachira are sold as small plants, but can grow 15 to 18 metres high in the wild. The pachira has made its way around the world and, in 1986, an enterprising truck driver living in Taiwan found these strange plants. He bought five and took them home, braiding them in a single flower pot. He began growing them from seed and cuttings and sold them as money trees. The popularity took off, and now many Asian businesses have them in their premises, hoping for good fortune.
The plant has proved to be good for the Taiwanese economy, with recent exports reportedly at $7 million. The trend is catching on in North America, too.
Pachira care is simple and the tree adapts well to many conditions. I've found the tree is somewhat of an anomaly because though it comes from swampy wetlands, it does poorly when overwatered in cultivation. It does best when allowed to dry slightly between waterings, and must have adequate drainage. Use fish fertilizer or kelp and seaweed for nutrition.
The tree loves the sun in winter, but tends to burn in the hot summer sun. Morning light is best; maintain regular household temperatures in cultivation.
Money tree, Malabar chestnut, Guiana chestnut, whatever it is named, the tree is truly a sight to behold. From the smallest of plants to the six-foot (1.8-metre) monster plants they turn into, the money tree will definitely raise eyebrows.
-- Canwest News Service
Renovation & Design
Can we attach newer ABS pipe to existing one?
QUESTION -- We live in a small one bedroom bungalow built in the 1920s. We would like to renovate the single bathroom and as part of that project change the size of the stack while relocating it. The stack is a five-inch galvanized pipe that runs up through the bathroom. It is not hidden behind a wall. Is it possible to attach the newer and smaller PVC pipe to the existing five-inch pipe, and does the stack need to be a straight line from the basement up through the roof? By moving the pipe behind a wall I would have to put at least one elbow in it in order to meet the existing hole in the roof. The stack would move approximately ten inches. P.S. The stack would actually be moving closer to the kitchen sink, so there would be no issue with venting from that area.--Art Brown, e-mail
Answer -- Improper plumbing vents, usually done by ambitious homeowners like yourself, are among the most common defects I see in homes. The reason I think these are so prevalent is that the drains will often work reasonably well, with hidden defects, even with badly installed venting. Because of this, I don't recommend homeowners attempt major drain or venting renovations without a consultation from a licensed plumber, to ensure the venting is done properly.
There are two main implications with plumbing vents done poorly or improperly. The first is obvious, poor drainage of toilets, sinks, bathtubs, and other plumbing fixtures. The second potential problem may be much more insidious, sewer gas intrusion. Drains installed with improper traps or missing vents can lead to sewer gas leaking into the home, rather than escaping up the stack and out the roof of the home. This gas can be noxious and in high enough concentrations may lead to health problems for the occupants of the home. Properly installed vents and P-traps will ensure that this gas is prevented from entering the living space.
While proper installation of plumbing drains is not exactly rocket science, many weekend warriors do not have the knowledge necessary to ensure that venting is done correctly when relocating older pipes. Your statement that your home has a five-inch galvanized stack makes me believe that you are in this category. Your stack is almost certainly cast iron, not galvanized, and new plumbing drains used in residential construction are almost always ABS plastic, not PVC. Installation of one "elbow" will only get the pipe moved in one direction but not back to the original location, as planned, without more joints. I am assuming that you are suggesting using 90-degree elbows, while ones with less of a severe angle may be more appropriate in your situation.
Replacement of an older cast iron stack with ABS is a good upgrade but in a one-storey home like yours it may be easier to replace the entire section from the basement through the roof, rather than splicing a piece in the middle. That way, you can prevent future leakage in the older, wet section of the drain in the basement. This will also allow you do a better job of attaching any newer ABS drains to the stack, below the main floor, that may have been replaced in the past. It will also allow you to install a proper neoprene flashing at the roof, near the top of the pipe, and remove the older lead flashing, above the roof, that may be deteriorated. This will ultimately be more work, but will provide you with a more permanent repair than you had proposed.
The next thing to consider, and probably the main reason for your question, is proper operation of the vent after modifications. As long as you don't reduce the interior size of the vent pipe significantly, you will probably still get sufficient air into the pipe for proper drainage with the new bends. However, this may only be true most of the year. The real problem may occur when the weather gets really cold outside. If you install sharp elbows, or reduce the size of the pipe in any way, you run the risk of excess frost build-up inside the "dry" section of the stack above the bathroom ceiling. This frost or ice may prevent proper air intrusion into the pipe and create the same issues identified previously. If you have a single, straight, vertical pipe going from basement to roof, this is unlikely to occur.
With the explosion of renovation-related shows on television, it may appear to many people that installation of various components for replacement of older items in homes is a simple procedure. With many materials like drywall and laminate flooring, this is may not be far from the truth, but that is not the situation with all systems. While cutting and gluing of ABS plumbing drains may well be within the skill levels of many homeowners, proper design of these systems is not simple. To properly address this concern, a licensed plumber should be able to take a look at the situation in your home and direct you in the proper method of adapting your older drains for your new desires. This will not only make sure that the drains function properly, but will also ensure that you pass scrutiny from the municipal building inspector, after you apply for the proper permit for your renovation.
Oh, yeah -- the building permit. Any time renovations involve electrical, plumbing or structural changes, you must get a building permit.
Ari Marantz is the owner of Trained Eye Home Inspection Ltd. and the president of the Canadian Association of Home & Property Inspectors - Manitoba (www.cahpi.mb.ca). Questions can be e-mailed or sent to: Ask The Inspector, P. O. Box 69021, #110-2025 Corydon Ave., Winnipeg, MB. R3P 2G9. Ari can be reached at (204) 291-5358 or check out his website at www.trainedeye.ca.
