A home with indoor plants is one full of colour, texture and warmth. They give you year-round access to gardening while improving air quality and filtering out toxins. With a few tips and tricks you can get your green friends thriving in your space.
Where to Start
First, consider where you want to put the houseplant and match that space to a plant with similar lighting requirements. Decide how much time you’re willing to devote to plant care and choose a plant that fits your lifestyle and schedule. The ideal number of plants to successful rid the air of toxins is 1/100 square feet. So, in a 1000 sq.ft. home, 10 plants would be ideal.
The Do’s and Don’ts
• Do recreate their natural environment. Tropical plants will thrive in humid environments, such as your bathroom or kitchen and the origins of your plant will give you an idea of how much or little light exposure they require.
• Do use room temperature tap water to care for your plants.
• Do keep your home between 65 – 75° in the day and 55 – 60° at night to help plants thrive.
• Don’t move them too often. Plants have a hard time adapting to environmental changes, pick a spot and stick to it.
• Don’t overwater them. The best way to tell if your plant needs water is to check the soil. In general it’s better to underwater than overwater.
• Don’t wet the foliage when watering, but ensure the soil is moist. Water should be coming out of the drainage holes in the bottom of the pot when you’ve done a good job.
Plant CPR
If your plant isn’t looking too good, it can be experiencing stress – that’s right, just like humans do. Signs of this are dry, yellowing or wilting leaves. This can be caused by any number of reasons, overwatering, under watering, too much or little sun. The best way to tell what kind of love your plant needs is by researching the conditions for optimal growth. That should give you an indication of where you’ve gone wrong and what you can change. If the leaves are browning, trim the dead pieces but do not pluck the entire leaf unless it’s completely dead, as most plants will replenish themselves when they get what they need.
Now that you’ve mastered how to keep your houseplants alive, interested in trying something new? Here’s your fool-proof guide to planting veggies for the first time. If you need some extra help, here’s a blog post on plant education 101.