Indoor Plants That Survive Anything

My home has a talent for killing plants. It’s not that I’m a bad gardener. Outside, with decent lighting conditions and water, I can grow plants with the best of them. I love gardening, and I’m all right at figuring out what plants need. What my house is lacking is light. I live in the dark Pacific Northwest, in a house that doesn’t often get full light, even though it’s not really shady. This is tricky and deceptive. To a human, the house looks good. Plants give it the thumbs down. Or the leaves down, more likely. What can you … Continue reading →

Fungus Among Us

Yesterday I purchased something that I’ve been wanting for ages. No, not a new stove (got that a couple of weeks ago!). No, not a new dress (pshaw, who needs clothes?). No, I bought myself a mushroom log. Yes, a mushroom log. It is less of a log and more of a batch of compressed hardwood chips pressed into a bag and inoculated with fungus. Yum, yum. The bag looks like I left something in the fridge for too long, then let it sit on the counter for a while. It’s brown and white, with little black bits. Currently, the … Continue reading →

Green Plants in Your Home

I grew up in a house that was crawling with green plants. Okay, they weren’t really crawling – they were still in their pots, and behaving themselves – but they were everywhere. Boston ferns, philodendrons, silver pothos – we had them all. It was our own private jungle. We lived this way because my mother loves plants, but there were other benefits as well. First is air quality. A green plant breathes in carbon dioxide, and we breathe in oxygen. So when you have a plant, it takes in both the carbon dioxide and the oxygen, filters out the oxygen, … Continue reading →

Houseplants that Sweeten the Air

After the holidays is a great time to bring in some new houseplants. For one, the house may look a little bare when the Christmas tree and the other decorations come down. Another great reason for bringing in houseplants in the winter is that certain varieties can do a great job of clearing the air. When the house is tightened down for winter, having houseplants that sweeten the air is a definite plus. In fact, NASA has been doing research on houseplants that might be used to purify air in space. Of course, if you aren’t careful, houseplants can lead … Continue reading →

Bringing in the Scents

I made a very uncharacteristic purchase the other day. Normally, the plants that grow in my garden are of the useful variety. Sure, some of them are also beautiful, but I grow them for food and for fiber and for medicine and for wildlife. I’m not really a gardener who plants for beauty. However, the other day I walked into the garden store with some birthday money. This is usually a bad idea, because it makes my birthday money disappear. I saw a plant. That plant was tall and it had very large flowers. It’s a lily. I bought it. … Continue reading →

Winter House Plant Care

Houseplants feel the colder temperatures and reduced humidity just as we humans do. The shorter days means that many plants slow down their growth. Here are some tips to help you keep your houseplants healthy and happy. Be careful about placing houseplants on windowsills in the winter. Not only might they get drafts from cold winds, but if their leaves touch the cold window the leaves can get damaged and fall off. A better idea is to place plants near a windowsill but not directly on it. Rotate your houseplants on a regular basis. With the reduced angle of the … Continue reading →

Guide to Poinsettias

What is the holiday season without poinsettias? They are a wonderful symbol of the holidays. Last weekend, my family and I went to that local botanical garden I am always talking about in my blogs. We enjoyed a breakfast with Santa. After the meal and the photo taking, we meandered around the main conservatory to look at the plants, the flowers and the holiday lights. There were plenty of the traditional poinsettias there, but I was also surprised by a few unique plants. The colors were splendid, from the rich read we normally associate with poinsettia, to a bare blush … Continue reading →

House Plant Tips

It doesn’t have to be difficult to have beautiful houseplants if you follow a few tips. I should know. In this household, we have the ability to kill a cactus. No matter how hard we tried, we always wound up with either dead plants or plants that made a real mess in our house. But we have learned a few tips along the way that help. Here they are: 1) To prevent the soil from leaking out of the bottom of potted plants when you water them, simply place a coffee filter in the bottom of the pot or planter. … Continue reading →

More on Houseplants that Help Improve Air Quality

Continuing where we left off yesterday, in Another Way to Go Green: Houseplants for Air Purification, I’d like to share more on houseplants that can help clean the air in our homes. As we learn more about the potential dangers of substances like formaldehyde, benzene, and other problematic gas such as carbon monoxide, we’re also learning that bringing in houseplants is a simple way to help purify the air and protect against these hazards. Some of these plants are quite common, so they’re readily available to us. Many are easy to care for as well. Here are some of the … Continue reading →

Another Way to Go Green: Houseplants for Air Purification

We know that plants are good for many things, from providing food in the form of fruits, vegetables, and grains, to offering medicinal qualities, such as those found in the Aloe Vera plant. Plants also make great accessories, giving spaces throughout the home more life. However, plants deserve a lot more credit. They have some tremendous properties that can help make your home and your family healthier. We are aware that plants can absorb carbon dioxide and convert it into oxygen, but I for one hadn’t given this important issue as much thought as I should have. Then, I learned … Continue reading →