As the Garden Grows

What's blooming today?


House plants and hard water

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We have very hard water here in Toronto. It eventually leaves a whitish crust of minerals on the top of my houseplants soil. You can also get a crust on the soil when you use fertilizer on your plants.

The unused minerals and fertilizer salts accumulate and can cause the plant to stop growing if it gets bad enough. It might also cause the tips of your plants leaves to turn brown.

I have a few ways of getting around this problem:

  • I don’t fertilize my plants very often
  • When I do fertilize I usually only do it with half the recommended amount of fertilizer
  • I try to give my plants a good soak in a sink or container full of water at least once a month

Thoroughly drenching the soil – basically rinsing the soil- will help leach all excess salts to the bottom of the pot or out the drainage hole. A loose porous soil allows the soil to be leached more easily and decreases salt buildup.

Does your home have hard water? Do you do anything to help your plants combat the effects of hard water? If you do, please tell me what you do.






Use Bidnapper to win your Ebay auctions

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I occasionally visit Ebay and check out the various items that are being sold there. Sometimes you can find some really good deals on garden ornaments, tools, and even solar or wired lighting for the garden.

I’ve only ever won a bid once! Luckily I just came across a software program called auction sniper that works by delivering bids to Ebay auctions at the last minute in a process called “snipping”. If I decide to use this software I’ll have a better chance of winning the auctions on items that I would really like to purchase.

The website offers a free 15 day trial of Bidnapper. If you enjoy bidding on auctions frequently you might be interested in purchasing a subscription with the company for as low as $6.95 per month or $46.95 for a years service. Subscriptions give you unlimited bidding for one, three, six or twelve months. Unlimited bidding means there are no restrictions on the number of bids you can place, or auctions you can win. Charges are not based on a percentage of your winning bid, as with other services.

Your username with be protected from searches by your competition, and you’ll be able to hold prices down by not bidding throughout the auction. You can even change or delete your bids without any hassle.

The dynamics of online auctions have been studied by University researchers in economics, mathematics, and physics, and the research has shown that experienced bidders who participate in “late bidding” are often successful in their attempts to secure auction items. If you’re an “Ebay Junkie” Bidnapper might be perfect for you.

House plants that thrive in low light

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My house is very dark inside in from mid autumn until early spring and I have trouble keeping plants that need bright light healthy during the winter months. Luckily the back of my house faces South and at least for half of each day there is a lot of light in the kitchen and one of the upstairs bedrooms. Guess where all of my tropical light loving plants go during the cool months? Yep, their crowded into the kitchen and one bedroom.

Now, most of those plants are ones that I keep outdoors during the summer – two Jasmine bushes, my passion flower vine, the amaryllis and a few others.

As for the rest of my house, well the west side is attached to the neighbors home so we don’t get any light from that side, the East side of the house has the driveway, and our other neighbors house is about 10 feet away – so very little light comes in through those windows. That leaves the large bay window at the front of the house. This faces North so we get most of our light at the front of the house in the afternoon but we don’t get much light at all.

Sounds kind of dark and depressing doesn’t it?

I’m sure many of you live in homes that are too dark during the winter months for many of the popular house plants that are sold in nurseries. Unless your house is very bright you’ll likely have trouble with most tropical plants.

Plants that I’ve found that seem to work well and even thrive in my low light rooms are:

  • Chinese Evergreen (Aglaonema) – I have two of these and they are doing well
  • Lucky bamboo
  • Boston Fern (Nephrolepsis exaltata)
  • Heart leafed Philodendron (Philodendron scandens var. oxycardium)
  • Mother-In-Law’s Tongue, Snake Plant (Sansevieria trifasciata)

Does anyone else want to add to this list? I’m looking for plants that do well in low to medium light conditions. Help me add to this and we’ll have a great list to help others who have dark homes.

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