Houseplants Wilting? Raise the Humidity in Your Ho...

By Tamara Galbraith It’s not the heat…it’s the humidity. You’ve heard it a thousand times, right? But for plants brought inside for the winter, the saying is especially true. Most plants thrive in 80% relative humidity. The average home’s winter humidity level is a pretty desert-like 20-60%. So you know plants are suffering. Fortunately, there are some easy ways to raise humidity around your...

Preventing Winter Moisture Loss

Many people don’t realize that plants can suffer from water stress in winter just as they can in summer–particularly if there is a mild winter. Excessive moisture loss in plants can cause stress, wilting, bud and shoot damage, and even plant failure. Moisture loss can strike during periods of winter drought, or when plant roots have been disturbed by transplanting too late in winter. It also occurs when drying...

What the Hay?

By Tamara Galbraith You see them all over the place during autumn: bales of hay used as fall décor. But once all the autumn decorations have been put away, what should you do with your bales of hay? One option is: compost them. Hay is an excellent additive to the compost pile, and ideally, the heat of the pile will kill any weed seeds that might be languishing in the bales. Straw apparently breaks down even better than...

It’s Not the Heat… It’s the Humi...

By Tamara Galbraith It’s not the heat…it’s the humidity. You’ve heard it a thousand times, right? But for plants brought inside for the winter, the saying is especially true. Most plants thrive in 80% relative humidity. The average home’s winter humidity level is a pretty desert-like 20-60%. So you know plants are suffering. Fortunately, there are some easy ways to raise humidity around your...