Tag Archives: cellar

Healthy Houseplants

If you’re looking for a way to keep your houseplants healthy, you can check the Home Blog. If you’re looking for houseplants that can keep YOU healthy, you’re in the right place. Plants can brighten your home — but they have a ton of health benefits. Lower stress with some greens in your workspace. Even in low light or offices without windows, you can keep a dragon tree, bamboo palm, snake plant, or arrowhead vine. Studies from Washington State University have shown that exposure to plants can lower your systolic blood pressure by as much as four points. Compare it … 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 →

Five Tips for Caring for Houseplants

I love plants, but I have never been very good at tending them. So, I’ve been doing a little research, hoping that I may eventually be able to get rid of the “black thumb” label and keep a little greenery alive and well in my home. These are general tips that apply to a large number of houseplants: Most plants need to acclimate to their environments. When bringing plants home, try to place them in a setting most like the one they came from (cool or warm, shaded or well lit). You can slowly begin moving them to other locations, … Continue reading →

Home: Review of Week Ending Nov. 4

I decided to change things around a little bit, so Week in Review articles will now cover all posts from Sunday through Saturday. Since Sunday was already covered last time, this particular review will begin with Monday’s entries, covering October 30 through November 4. This week Marjorie, Michele, and I, covered several issues regarding holidays, guests, home care, and more. Michele and I both wondered if it’s really necessary to kick off the Christmas season before or even just after Halloween, in “Is it Time for Christmas Decorations?” and “Poinsettias Already?” Marjorie offered tips like “Houseplants That You Positively Cannot … Continue reading →

Houseplants That You Positively Cannot Kill

If you are one of those people with a black, brown or other wise green thumb, it’s hard not to develop a complex of some sort when all of your plants wither and die before your very own helpless eyes. Some plants, like people are easier to maintain than others. The following six houseplants get along well with people who don’t understand them and all can be nurtured in indirect lighting and like the same indoor temperature as most people (55-75 degrees F). 1.Cast Iron Plant (aspidistra elatior) Can you guess how this green thing got its name? Think of … Continue reading →

Houseplants Are More Than Just Green Things

The key to growing healthy plants is to remember that they have feelings, just like you and me. Sometimes they feel sunny, shady, lusty, misty, crummy, unwanted and even unloved. Treat them like favored pets and they will love you back. Name your plants. This bonds them to you and “drink, Maxine, drink”, goes a lot further than just pouring water down a pot. Don’t buy or sell your plants on their birthdays, as this will cause severe separation anxiety. Avoid mentioning above a whisper the names of holidays and celebrations that contain green words or ideas (St. Patrick’s Day, … Continue reading →

The Parlor In The Home: Wherever Did It Go?

The merest mention of a parlor conjures images of a time that is no more. Even though the terms “ice cream parlor” and “beauty parlor” are commonly used today, these do not come immediately to mind. In the Victorian sense of the word, ghosts of love thwarted and unfulfilled abound amid pressed flowers, ruby walls, Empire sofas and furnishings of walnut and mahogany. Prim young women adorned with tortoise combs and cameos primp long satin skirts as they reign upon love seats fashioned from the richest fabrics. They speak in the language of flirtation, conveying their feelings and conducting themselves … Continue reading →

Your Bathroom: An Altered State?

Jerry Seinfeld once referred to the bathroom in his mother’s house as an altered state. He did not need drugs nor was he even considering them, as his reality was already significantly altered by his mother’s arrangement of things. The roll of toilet paper, for example, didn’t look like toilet paper because it was incognito by sporting a knitted hat. (It declined a nametag, for that would have been just too embarrassing.) He says, “The toilet paper had a hat, the dog had a sweater and the couch arms and backs had little fabric toupees to protect them.” Don’t let … Continue reading →

Preparing Your Home For a House-Sitter

To some of you out there, this may seem like cleaning the house before the maid comes or going to the beach with a new swim suit and not getting it wet. It is sort of like that, but it is also different. Listen before you judge, for the torment and headache medication you save in doing so may be your very own. If you are going away and entrusting your house to someone, it better well be someone you can trust. That is the first issue, and although it may seem obvious, I know that I, on one occasion, … Continue reading →