Garlic is one of the easiest crops to tuck into a square foot bed. Plant 9 garlic cloves per square, set in a 3 by 3 grid about 4 inches apart, in fall about 4 to 6 weeks before your ground freezes. Each clove grows into a full bulb by early to mid summer. The … Read more >>
Most of the time, a red air plant is a healthy one. An air plant turning red is usually blushing before it blooms, or it’s reacting to strong, bright light, and neither one means the plant is sick. Many Tillandsia species shift from silvery green to red, pink, or orange right before they flower. The … Read more >>
To water air plants that are glued, mist the leaves thoroughly two to three times a week, or dunk the whole piece if the mount and glue can handle water, then tilt or flip it so the plant dries within about 4 hours. The goal is soaking-wet leaves and a base that never stays damp … Read more >>
An areca palm (Dypsis lutescens, once sold as Chrysalidocarpus lutescens) is a tough clumping palm from Madagascar. Indoors, it’s also a magnet for a few sap-sucking bugs. The most common areca palm pests are spider mites, mealybugs, and scale, and the most common diseases are fungal leaf spot and root rot from soggy soil. Nearly … Read more >>
Plant 4 full-size bok choy per square foot, or 9 baby bok choy per square, in a square foot garden. That works out to about 6 inches between standard plants and 4 inches between baby plants, which gives each head enough room to fill out without crowding its neighbors. Bok choy (Brassica rapa subsp. chinensis) … Read more >>
The best indoor plants for asthma are low-pollen foliage plants that are easy to wipe clean, like snake plant, ZZ plant, pothos, spider plant, and parlor palm, because they rarely flower indoors and their smooth leaves don’t trap much dust. They won’t treat asthma, and they won’t clean your air in any way you’d notice. … Read more >>
Brussels sprouts fit neatly into a raised grid bed. Plant one Brussels sprout per square foot, and set the plants along the north side of the bed so their 2 to 3 foot stalks don’t shade shorter crops. That’s the standard spacing for the largest plants in a grid bed, and it works well as … Read more >>
Plant one oregano plant per square, set at a corner of your grid, in full sun and lean, fast-draining mix. That single plant spreads to fill its 12-by-12-inch square by its second season, so you’ll spend more time trimming it back than waiting for it to grow. Oregano is a perennial, which makes it different … Read more >>
Plant a lotus tuber with about 2 inches of water over the soil, then raise the water a few inches at a time as leaves grow, until it sits 4 to 12 inches deep for small types and 12 to 18 inches deep for large ones. That shallow start keeps the water warm and lets … Read more >>
Most bugs in houseplant soil are either harmless decomposers or fungus gnat larvae, and drying out the top 1 to 2 inches of potting mix fixes the majority of cases. The fastest way to get rid of soil bugs is to identify them first, let the topsoil dry between waterings, trap flying adults with yellow … Read more >>