Common Watering Problems

Many, many problems are caused for houseplants and garden plants by common watering mistakes.  These include under watering, over watering, watering at the wrong time, improper watering and watering on a schedule.  All of these can lead to plant diseases especially those caused by fungus.  They can aid in the spread of plant disease and the leaching of nutrients in container plants. I can't tell

Tips for Using Self-Watering Planters

Using self-watering planter for houseplants, on the patio or deck and in the garden makes a lot of sense.  They result is healthier, stress-free plants that are better equipped in warding of disease and infestations.  I have been busy repotting all of my houseplants and starting planted pots for outdoors using self-watering planters.  Here's a few tips for using self-watering planters:
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Why Use Self-Watering Planters?

There is a wide range of self-watering planters available or you can make your own.  Basically a self-watering planter consists of two chambers.  The upper chamber is the potting chamber.  There is a series of slits in the bottom of the upper chamber allowing water to be drawn from the lower chamber (water reservoir) by the plant roots using capillary action.  There is some type of hole at the

Arboricola Bush in EEZY-GRO Self-Watering Planter

Arboricola Bush(Umbrella Plant)
One of our local grocery stores was selling gorgeous floor plants in 10" pots for $9.99 so I bought a few.  Plants breath life into a room but at the same time help clean the air so they should be included in every room of the house.  Floor plants are wonderful for adding that extra touch without spending a lot of money. Pictured is the Arboricola bush I bought

Houseplants and Watering Globes

Dollarama is likely quite happy with me!  I discovered their watering globes back in May of 2010 and have been experimenting with them ever since.  We spend upwards of five weeks at a time away from our permanent residence to enjoy our vacation home.  That leaves the dilemna of houseplant watering.  In our case, this is not a huge issue as our kids look after the house while we are away but I'm

Build an Inexpensive Self Watering Container

Now that our gardening season is starting to wind down with the ADFF quickly approaching, I am looking for a few winter gardening projects to test out.  This year was quite dry throughout the summer creating problems with the container plants that easily dried out just a couple of hours after watering.  I didn't use the watering globes outdoors but I did use the SoilMoistTM granules on some of

Emergency Container Resuce

Ontario and Quebec are experiencing a heat wave with hot, humid weather.  This is the type of weather that can end up killing off a few container plants.  The problem is even if the container is watered thoroughly in the morning by early afternoon it may need watering again.  This year I added SoilMoist™ granules to my non-edible planters to help with water management but even that is proving to

Watering Globe Update

I posted back in mid-May about the automatic watering globes I bought.  I thought these would be a nice water management tool especially for indoor use.  I've had a chance to use the watering globes for almost 2 months now so thought I would report back on my experience.   The watering globes are very easy to use.  You simply fill them then insert into the planter.  However I did find that the

Effective Watering Strategies

Watering the garden is likely one of the most important chores during the summer months.  Any container plants need to be watered daily and quite often a couple of times during the day.  Container plants on balconies in particular need extra water during hot spells.  A few days ago we had a period of wet weather.  While out and about on a rainy day last week I noticed the sprinkler system going

Using SoilMoist™ Granules in Houseplants and Planters

I posted awhile ago about my waterball garden using Deco beads by the makers of SoilMoist™.  I was impressed enough with the Deco beads that I wanted to try the SoilMoist™ as well.  SoilMoist™ has been successfully used in the horticultural industry as a water management system.  Essentially what the granules do is absorb moisture like a sponge then releases it to the soil as the soil dries.  It