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Plants
Rely on People and......
By
Nisar
During winters, the days are short
as sun goes down early and people tend to stay most of
the times indoor. Consequently, it is the perfect time to
spend more time with your houseplants. Every year, I grow
more convinced of the importance of the relationship between
people and plants. They not only provide heat, shade, cooling,
and the traditional food and fiber to
support our daily lives but also beauty and the all-important
food for the soul.
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Yet, we forget or take
for granted their most important gifts to mankind: fresh
oxygen and clean air. NASA studies indicate that green
plants are still better than most any kind of air filter
for cleaning impurities from the air and providing the
fresh oxygen needed by astronauts in space, home or office.
Living green plants are regularly used to battle sick
building syndrome in modern skyscrapers, those with bad
air movement or air exchange problems. Plants have even
been widely used in schools, homes and offices in lower
Manhattan to help clean the air after the Sept. 11 attack.
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a key part of the symbiotic relationship between
plants and people, plants need the carbon dioxide
that can poison us if we get too much, while they
give off the oxygen we need.
It's the perfect time to add a few houseplants to
your home and office or replace those
that are tired and have not done well. Place highlight
foliag e plants such as |
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palms, Scheffelera and weeping figs
near windows.
Most plants do best with the better light near your windows,
but there are many good low-light plants: varieties of
Spathiphyllum, or peace lily; Aglaonema, the Chinese evergreen;
or Dracaena, the corn plant. I usually suggest watering
most houseplants when the top of the soil feels dry to
the touch. Water thoroughly to the top of the pot and
wait to water again until dry to touch. Over watering
houseplants causes more problems than under watering,
so err to the underwater side if in doubt. Feed your houseplants
with a water-soluble fertilizer every four to six watering.
Set your houseplants in a saucer on a bed of gravel so
the water will drain into the gravel and then evaporate
as humidity around the plant. You can add more water periodically
to this gravel to maintain this effective plant humidifier
to battle the dry heat of today's central heat systems.
Make time to take care of your houseplants, and they will
help take care of you. |
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Potted
Plants
By
Julie Shippen
Dirt is out, have you heard?
At least for potted houseplants. True, you need dirt
in the pot, but to view it, too?
This news may amuse indoor gardeners, who by now have
brought their leafy babies inside, repotted them and
tucked each in the right spot. But have any of you looked
at your dirt lately? It's not pretty, and I've got one
thing to say: Go top-dress those pots, dear.
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Covering up exposed dirt around potted
plants does have practical reasons. First, it prevents
Kitty the cat from using a pot as a litter box. Second,
like mulch applied outdoors, a layer keeps the pot soil
from drying out. But why not dress up your pots just for
the fun of it? Think beyond sphagnum and beyond real moss,
which is beautiful but too hard to keep alive.
It's easier to surround your fichus trunk with, say, a
"sea" of sparkling glass marbles or a warm "beach"
of red sand.
We found plenty of ideas at one crafts store: buttons,
dried flowers, excelsior (natural or dyed), polished stones,
scented pine cones, grapevine twigs, small "picks"
of silk plants, plastic beads and even doll hair. Look
around the house, and you'll probably find more, such
as seashells, herb leaves or sprigs, coffee beans, nuts,
bark mulch, glass-ball ornaments for Christmas, pennies,
etc.
One caveat on decorative pot mulch: When watering, do
so between the pinecones or balls or whatever. You want
to saturate the soil, not the mulch -- especially if what
you choose has any ongoing nasty chemistry. And because
your soil isn't exposed to give you visual cues to water,
you'll need to check it faithfully. |
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