House plants are one of my favorite ways to warm up a space and make it feel alive. Since we live somewhere it gets cold in the winter I always think about indoor air quality. Did you know that according to the American Lung Association “Indoor air can be two – five times more polluted than outdoor air. This is especially true during the winter months when we seal up our homes to conserve heat, trapping pollutants like mold, dust, particulate matter, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) inside”
A Cornell study found that plants could remove toxins from the air including “formaldehyde, benzene, acetone, ammonia, trichloroethylene, and carbon monoxide. Of all these, formaldehyde is the most prevalent, found in virtually all indoor environments, coming from wood floorboard resins, pressed wood products, furniture, exhaust fumes, fabric treatments, water repellents, flame retardants, many paper products, natural gas, kerosene, and cigarette smoke”.
If you don’t think you have a green thumb keeping houseplants alive can feel scary in the beginning. We have probably 30 different varieties inside and while they all have different light and watering needs you can simplify your plant routine with just a few basic things.
- Making sure you have a watering schedule. Overwatering is as dangerous to a plant as underwatering. I try to water every Sunday with only a small exception. My citrus plants get water mid week since they like to be continuously damp.
- A great fertilizing routine. Potted houseplants can’t pull from additional soil nutrients so I add the happy house plants plant food into my water schedule every week.
- Making sure their leaves are not coated with dust. I use the happy house plantar neem oil and micro fiber cloth every other week so that their leaves stay clean and shiny.
- If you have ever dealt with soil gnats you know it can make you want to throw out every plant in your house. I use the Death drops in my watering schedule also so i keep the population down. Once an infestation takes hold it takes quite a while to kill them so just use the drops each week and you will stop the problem before it starts.
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