As the Garden Grows

What's blooming today?


You are here: Home / Archives for Garden Tips

House plants and hard water

by

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.






House plants that thrive in low light

by

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.

October Gardening Tips

by

If you live in a cool climate here are a few things that you should do for your garden this month:

  • Plant scattered clusters of early flowering bulbs, such as crocus, throughout your lawn in order to achieve a more-relaxed, “natural” look, but, don’t mow the area until the foliage dies the next summer.
  • Clean up the area around your perennial flowers, such as rose and peony. If left on the ground, leaves and stems can harbor diseases and provide convenient places for pests to spend the winter.
  • Ferns can be planted or transplanted in fall.
  • Wear gloves when handling hyacinth bulbs as they have an oil in the bulb that may make some people itch. Also remember to wash your hands with cool water and soap immediately after planting.
  • Cut stems and foliage of herbaceous perennials when the leaves begin to brown.
  • Occasionally some spring-flowering bulbs to send up a few leaves in the late fall or early winter. The bulbs will remain safe over the winter and will still produce flowers next spring.
  • If cannas, dahlias, and gladioli are not hardy in your area, bring them inside after the tops are browned by frost. Allow to dry, clean off soil, and store in peat moss or vermiculite in a cool location free from frost.
  • Move and divide crowded perennials. Give some to your friends and neighbors if you have too many!
  • Let a few of the seeds of your favorite delphinium and hollyhock ripen on their stalks. When they mature, you can plant the seeds in a garden bed where they will grow into little plants that survive the winter well.
  • Add mulch to your garden beds. A 1-inch layer of chopped leaves or weed-free straw will help conserve soil moisture, protect the root system, and reduce plant loss by soil heaving during the winter.
  • lily bulbs are never dormant, you must plant them as soon as they are purchased. Prepare your beds ahead of time.
  • Mark the spots where late starting perennials will come up next spring as you clean out the flower beds, so that you can avoid damaging them while working in the beds next year.

Meta