Tag: Plants

How to Take Care of a New Plant

When you bring home a new plant, it is important to treat them carefully to avoid accidentally spreading pests or deseases they might carry to your other plants. Read on to find out exactly how you can make your new plant happy while keeping your existing collection safe.

This plant is called “Philodendron Red Anderson”. I bought it online from Etsy. I love buying plants from Etsy as it is a great platform for finding plants at a reasonable and affordable price.

The first thing to do with a new plant is to check the leaves for pests.

I always treat all new plants for pests just in case. Even if I do not find anything in a preliminary search. For this plant, I wiped the leaves with a neem oil solution. Neem oil is a natural pest prevention/treatment for plants! Check out my post about how to make a neem oil solution here!

If your plant is from a big box store or is in a very poor potting mix, I recommend repotting it as soon as possible to get it into a better soil mix. The soil from commercial nurseries is often poor and can lead to drainage problems.

The last step is to isolate your plant. This step is not strictly necessary, but I like to keep my new plants separate for a week or so to make sure there are no pests that survived that could be passed on to the rest of my plants.

Cloches are a great option when space is limited.

Those are all the steps to take for bringing a new plant into your plant collection. Comment your planty questions down below! Check out my Youtube and Instagram for daily plant content.

Neem Oil: The Best Way to Eradicate Plant Pests and Diseases Naturally

While there are many different ways to deal with pests on your plants, neem oil is by far the best option for dealing with them. Unlike many other pest treatments available, neem oil is both effective and natural.

According to the EPA, cold pressed neem oil has no health risks as it is derived from plant material. It is also perfectly safe to use on outdoor plants as well as houseplants with no negative effect on the environment or pollinators.

Neem oil can be purchased in a concentrate form or in a pre-made solution. I prefer to buy a concentrated bottle of neem oil and make the solution myself as it saves both money and plastic.

How to make neem oil solution with a bottle of concentrate:

  • Mix 1 1/2 tsp of neem oil concentrate per 1 quart of water
  • Add 1/2 tsp of mild liquid dish soap per quart
  • Shake until both the neem oil and the soap are mixed together with the water

Using neem oil solution is very simple! All you need to do is spray the affected plant down every 10-14 days until the pests have been eradicated. This solution can be used to get rid of or prevent all sorts of plant bugs and pests, including mealybugs, aphids, and spider mites! Neem oil can also be used every two weeks as a preventative or treatment for and mildew diseases (ex. Powdery Mildew).

That is everything you need to know about using neem oil to protect your plants. Neem oil is a great option for both outdoor and indoor plants!

Building an Ikea Greenhouse Cabinet-free printable!

Greenhouse cabinets are great ways to make sure your tropical plants are thriving in their optimal conditions. Learn here how I built my greenhouse cabinet and find useful links and lists for making your own! At the bottom of the post you will find a printable PDF with links to all the materials you need to make your own greenhouse cabinet.

My goal for my cabinet is to create a humid environment for my tropical plants as most tropical plants require humidity levels that are not usually maintained in houses.

The first thing I did was to chose which Ikea cabinet I wanted to transform. There are many different options, but I chose the Milsbo Tall Ikea cabinet in the black color. It is big enough that it will fit all my plants in the years to come, but it will not take up too much space in my plant room. If you are looking for a smaller cabinet, the Ikea Baggebo and Rudista cabinets are good options too.

The next important thing is to get weatherstripping for the greenhouse cabinet. Weatherstripping is an adhesive strip that seals the cracks of the cabinet to retain humidity. If your cabinet is black, then use this black weatherstripping. If it is white, you can use this one. Matching the color of the weatherstripping with your cabinet is not required! This is purely a personal reference.

Another important thing to add is a small fan. Fans will provide air circulation which is important with high humidity in order to prevent fungal and bacterial deseases on your plants. Here is the link to the fan I used.

The most important thing in your greenhouse cabinet will be grow lights! These will provide the light the plants will need to grow. I like and used the Barrina grow lights. Depending on how wide your greenhouse cabinet is, they have 2ft wide ones and 1ft wide ones. the grow lights come in multiple different colors, but the white light is my favorite as they light up a room without being blindingly bright.

If you want to maximize your greenhouse cabinet’s vertical space, consider hanging grid organizers in your cabinet. These will allow you to add extra shelves/space for more plants.

Those are all the materials needed to build a greenhouse cabinet. Attached at the bottom is a free PDF with all the links to the materials mentioned.

PDF:

greenhouse-cabinet-linksDownload

How to Grow Snake plants

Snake plants are a great houseplant for beginner or experienced plant owners because they are flexible and incredibly low maintenance. Read on to find out how you should take care of this amazing plant!

frontal shot of a snake plant in a pot

Photo from: The Spruce / Alonda Baird

Water: Snake plants do not need to be watered often. If you water them too much, they will rot and die. An easy way to avoid this is to keep your snake plant in a pot with drainage holes, so extra water can drain out when you water the plant. You only need to water your snake plant once a month!

Sun: Snake plants can tolerate and grow in a wide range of light. They will enjoy full sun, but will still thrive in full shade. Snake plants can survive in places with no light for over a month!

Fertilizer: Snake plants do not need to be fertilized often. A good rule of thumb is to use all purpose plant food, like this one, every spring. Make sure you don’t feed your snake plant too much or their roots can get burned!

Snake plants can be grown in many different ways and places, which make them perfect for any plant enthusiast. From beginner to expert, snake plants are a prized addition to any plant-lover’s collection!

How to Grow a Green Thumb

A dummy’s guide to growing houseplants!

Taking care of houseplants doesn’t have to be super hard or complicated. Learn how you can keep your plants alive!

In order to keep your plants alive, you need to make sure you are giving them the right amount of water and light. Different plants need different amounts of each, but you can treat most of your plants the same.

Most houseplants can grow in places with less sun, but if you put them in spaces with higher light levels, they will grow faster. So if you can, put your plants in a spot that gets the most light as possible. When it comes to watering your plants, it is very important to make sure you do not give them too much water. Most beginner plant owners kill their plants simply by watering them too much! Normal houseplants should be watered once their soil is mostly dried out. If you are not sure if your plant’s soil is dry yet, use the chopstick/toothpick method to find out.

How to find out if a plant’s soil is dry or wet. Take a wooden chopstick or toothpick (depending on how big the pot is), and stick it into the edge of the pot until it reaches the bottom. When you pull it out, look at how much soil is stuck to the stick. If the stick comes out mostly dry/clean, the soil is completely dry and ready to be watered. If the stick comes out with dirt stuck to it, then the soil is wet and you do not need to water your plant right now.

There is not a lot of soil sticking to the stick, so the soil is dry.
There is a lot of soil sticking to the stick, so the soil is wet.

If you are a beginner to growing houseplants, It is a very good idea to make sure your plant’s pots have drainage holes in them. That way, if you accidentally water your plant too much, the excess water will just drain pout instead of just sitting in the pot and ultimately killing your plant. If your plant is in a pot with drainage holes, make sure you have a saucer or tray under it to catch the excess water that drains out when you water your plant.

This pot has drainage holes, so I put a saucer under it to catch the water that drains out.

If your plant is in a pot with drainage holes and its soil is dry, water it until the extra water comes out the bottom. Make sure you empty out the saucer once you are done watering so your plant is not sitting in water.

That is it! Those are the basic things you need to to know to take care of your houseplants! It might seem super hard and complicated at first, but over time taking care of your houseplants will seem super simple and easy! If you have any questions about plant care, leave a comment down below and I will do my best to answer it!

Check out my Etsy shop here! https://solisandlunacrafts.etsy.com/

Take a look here to learn how I threw nothing away for 30 days!

Plant Swap 101

This week I went to a plant swap hosted by PHS. A plant swap is an event where people bring plants they don’t want anymore or cuttings/baby plants to trade for new plants. Plant swaps are a great way to get plants for free!

Here are the plants I brought to the swap:

And here are the plants that I came back with! (The glass jars are mine)

How to plant swap:

First, you need to find a plant swap event in your area. Ask your local nurseries or look online to try to find one.

You can bring any plants you want to a plant swap-just make sure they do not have any pests or diseases! I like to wrap my cuttings with a damp paper towel and plastic wrap so they don’t dry out.

In some plant swaps, people set up their plants on a table and trade with other people once they see a plant they like. In other plant swaps, everybody brings a certain number of plants and puts them on one table. Then, everybody can just take the same number of plants they brought.

Plant swaps are a great way to meet new plant people and find new plants!

Plants You Can Grow In Full Sun!

If you still need to pick a spot for a garden or start one, check out this post:

https://tigershakti.org/2022/12/11/how-to-start-a-garden-p-1/

To learn how to measure sun in your garden, check this out: https://tigershakti.org/2022/12/03/how-to-measure-sun-in-a-garden/

If you have full sun in your garden, (6+ hours of direct sun) you are in luck! That means you can grow almost any plant! Some plants you can grow are:

Veggies: Tomatoes, peppers, squash, carrots, radish, peas, kale, onions, garlic, cucumbers, fennel, lettuce, asparagus, Brussels sprouts, artichoke, okra, gourds, potatoes and sweet potatoes, green beans, eggplant, tomatillos, corn,


Fruits: Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, fruit trees, melons.


Herbs: Mint, rosemary, thyme, lavender, oregano, basil, chives, dill.


Flowers: Rose, marigold, cosmos, daylily, bee balm, black eyed susan, petunia, sunflower, zinnia, dahlia.

Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/SolisandLunaCrafts

Patreon: patreon.com/tigershakti

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1QsDmyuTX4rtw9tpMLw3xQ

That’s it for today! Check out my Etsy and Patreon!

Sources: https://morningchores.com/full-sun-vegetables/ https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/flowers/fgen/full-sun-plants.htm

How to start a garden! P. 1

Check out what plants you can grow in your garden!

With everything that is going on right now, growing a little food to have even a little bit of food security is a good idea. -But gardening has so many other benefits than just producing food. Gardening can help with PTSD, keep you more active, and nourishes your mind and body.

If you live in an apartment, don’t worry. Believe it or not, you can grow a garden even in an apartment! Check out this post to learn how you can grow your own fresh food in mason jars in your home! https://tigershakti.org/2020/05/29/how-to-grow-your-own-indoor-garden-post-1-mason-jar-herbs/

You can start planning and building your garden ANYTIME. Even in the middle of the winter! The first step to starting a garden is to pick out the place you want to put it. The space you choose for your garden should be easily accessible so that you will stay motivated to work in it, and it should be as sunny as possible. If you can, measure the hours of sun your garden space gets. To do this, check out my post on measuring sun in the garden here. https://tigershakti.org/2022/12/03/how-to-measure-sun-in-a-garden/

You can also find out how much direct sun an area gets by buying a sun meter. All you have to do is stick it in the ground in the place you want to measure sun, and wait! Within a day it will tell you how much sun it got. Here is a link to one of those: https://www.amazon.com/Luster-Leaf-1875-Rapitest-Calculat

Now that you know how much sun your chosen garden space gets, it is time to pick the plants that you can grow. Different plants grow better with more or less sun.

If your garden space gets 6-8 hours of sun, that is considered full sun. it means you can grow any plant that loves sun there.

If your garden gets 3-6 hours of direct sunlight a day, it is considered partial shade. You can still grow almost all of the same plants as you can in full sun.

If your garden space gets 2-3 hours of sunlight a day, it is called full shade. You can not grow as many different plants here as you can in sunnier locations, but you can still grow a bountiful garden.

Now that you have your garden space, how much sun it gets, and what plants you can grow, the next step is to plan your garden layout. Stay tuned for that post!

Patreon: patreon.com/tigershakti

Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/SolisandLunaCrafts

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1QsDmyuTX4rtw9tpMLw3xQ

How to measure sun in a garden!

Different plants need different amounts of sunlight, but how do we find put how much sunlight your garden gets? In this post, we will find out how to measure sun in the garden.

This method for measuring sun in the garden is called a sun log. All you have to do is every couple of hours, take a picture of your garden space. Then, look at which pictures show your garden in sunlight. Then you know how many hours of sun your garden gets. Here is an example:

This is my garden bed around 10:30
This is it at 12:00
My garden bed at 2:30

Using these pictures, I can see that my garden bed gets dappled sunlight at 10:30, and then goes onto shade for the rest of the day. Now what I should do is I should take pictures of my garden bed at 8 to 11 to see exactly how many hours my garden bed gets.

That’s it! Thanks for reading this post, if you have any questions, comment down below and I’ll be happy to answer!

Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/SolisandLunaCrafts

Patreon: patreon.com/tigershakti

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1QsDmyuTX4rtw9tpMLw3xQ


Plant profiles: Mint (#2) How to make mint tea!

Hello everyone! How are you? I hope you are having a good day! In today’s post, I am going to show you how you can make mint tea with your home grown mint! Let’s get started!

Mint tea is such a good way to warm up in the long winter months. Just imagine making a cup of warm mint tea and curling up on the couch to watch the snow fall. 🙂 We don’t even wait for the cold months to come before we drink mint tea, we drink it in the summer too! Anyways, here are the steps on how to make mint tea.

Step #1: Get your mint.


To make mint tea, you can use dry mint, or fresh mint. The only thing is, when you make mint tea with freshly picked mint, it is not as good as if you make mint tea with dried mint. (So we prefer to make mint tea with dried mint.) Check out some posts I did on how to dry herbs HERE.

The other good thing about using dried mint for your tea, is that you can cut and dry your mint in the summer, and then you can used your dried mint all through out the winter.

Step 2: Warm up your water


We warm up our water to about 190 degrees Fahrenheit.

Step 3: put your mint in!


We like to use these cups for making mint tea for one person, but you can use a tea pot too!

Step 4: Pour and wait!

Once you have your mint in your pot and you water at 190 degrees Fahrenheit, you can pour your how water through the mint into your tea cup/pot till your mint is covered with water.


Now, all you have to do is wait! For dried mint, we like to let our mint steep for about 3 minutes. Feel free to test out different steeping times though!

Finally, once your tea had steeped to the point where you like how it tastes, take out your mint strainer and enjoy!