Yearly Archives: 2017

The Benefits of Plants in the Workplace

Time spent in nature is well known to provide many physical, mental and emotional benefits, but what if your work schedule and career keep you in an office without many opportunities for heading outdoors? You can bring the outdoors in and reap many of the same benefits.

Plants Can Improve Your Workplace

There has been extensive research done regarding the benefits of plants in the workplace. With full time employees spending approximately one-quarter of their lives at work it is important that these buildings provide an environment of beauty, health and comfort. Studies confirm that there are both physiological and psychological benefits to surrounding yourself with nature at work. An eight-month study conducted by a Texas A&M University research team has concluded that plants significantly reduce workplace stress and enhance employee productivity, a win-win situation for both employer and employee. Other studies have verified those findings, as well as expanded the list of benefits plants can provide when used judiciously as part of an indoor workplace.

The presence of plants in the workplace can…

  • Lower blood pressure
  • Reduce stress
  • Increase humidity
  • Reduce illness
  • Purify air
  • Reduce dust
  • Lower energy costs
  • Quicken employee response time
  • Enhance problem solving ability
  • Spark creativity
  • Increase brain activity
  • Provide a positive outlook
  • Act as a mood elevator
  • Have a calming affect
  • Boost learning
  • Contribute to noise reduction
  • Improve office appearance
  • Reduce distractions

With so many obvious benefits just by including plants in office décor, every office – whether it is a large corporation, a simple business or a cozy home office – should include at least a few plants.

Bringing Plants to Work

There are many easy ways to blend plants into office décor. Popular ways to integrate plants into the office include…

  • Larger potted plants or containers in a greeting or reception area.
  • Ferns or hanging pots in broad windows.
  • A ficus tree or other large pot near a water cooler.
  • Pothos or other trailing plants on top of cabinets in a break area.
  • Small plants and flowers on individual desks.
  • Decorating for holidays with seasonal plants.
  • Giving office plants as gifts for work anniversaries, welcomes, etc.

When choosing plants for the office, be sure to opt for plants that will function best in the environment. Take into consideration temperatures, light levels and humidity so the plants will thrive. Selecting low-maintenance plants that can withstand good-natured neglect is also wise, so they will still thrive even when project deadlines, committee meetings and vacation days may make their care sporadic. Fortunately, there are many great plants that can liven up an office, and each one will bring great benefits to the workplace.

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Orchids: Exotic Beauties To Warm The Winter

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Orchids are some of the most exotic plants on earth. They display an amazing range of diversity in the size, shape and color of their unique flowers. There is a misconception, however, that these floral treasures are difficult to grow, when in fact more and more gardeners are growing and collecting orchids each year. Provide the essentials of good care and you too can grow orchids easily!

Growing Orchids

Orchids have some unique needs when it comes to proper care. Because they can be temperamental at times, it is best to carefully investigate the types of orchids you are interested in growing and be sure you can meet their individual needs.

  • Light: Most orchids prefer abundant, filtered sunlight. This can be met with west- or south-facing windows, or you may need some supplemental light sources. A few popular orchid varieties can grow in lower light levels.
  • Temperature: Like any plants, orchids can do well in a temperature range, though some prefer warmer locations and some prefer cooler locations. Measure the temperature range where you want to grow orchids and select varieties that will do well in that range.
  • Humidity: Orchids are tropical plants that do well in more humid environments. They can do well in terrariums or greenhouses where the humidity can be elevated, or you can take steps to increase the humidity around the orchids in your home, such as through plant grouping, pebble trays or misting.
  • Watering: Orchids tend to do best if they dry out somewhat between thorough waterings. Plant your orchids in an appropriate medium, and take great care with watering so they can absorb sufficient moisture without fostering root rot or other mildew.
  • Fertilizing: Fertilizers are not critical for blooming orchids, but they can help provide better nourishment. Fertilizing lightly is better than over-fertilizing, and fertilizer should only be applied during active growth periods.

The exact care your orchids will need will depend on the varieties you choose. Research their optimal environments and you’ll be well prepared to host an array of stunning orchids in your home.

Common Orchid Varieties and Care

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Flirting with Spring

In January and February, winter flirts with spring. Despite snow on the ground, there will be occasional warm days, balmy breezes and stunning blue skies that remind us of the rich colors of spring. On these flirtatious days, quince, forsythia and pussy willow begin to emerge from dormancy. With this slight swelling of buds, it is time to cut a few branches to bring spring indoors, so even when winter reappears with the next freeze or storm, we’re reminded of the warmer times to come.

Forcing Branches

Just like forcing bulbs, forcing branches will bring their buds into full beauty even if the outside weather isn’t quite right yet. To force branches, select plants that have set their buds in the fall or early winter. Look for branches with plump flower buds, and cut branches that you would have normally pruned in order to preserve the shape and health of the plant.

Next, scrape about 2 inches of the bark from the pruned end of the branch and make a 3-5 inch cut up the branch (lengthwise from the pruned end) to allow water to be absorbed. You can also split the end by carefully hammering it, but avoid crushing the tissues. Fill a tall container or vase with room-temperature water and floral preserver, then place the cut branches in it. Place the arrangement in a dimly lit room for 2-3 days, then move into a brighter area (but no direct sunlight). Change the water and cut 1 inch off the bottom of the stem each week. Mist the branches daily. Although they may take up to 3 weeks to bloom, the delightful bursts of color will be a celebrated reward for your time and efforts.

Flowering Branches for Forcing

Depending on when you want your buds to bloom, there are a variety of great branches you can work to force into brilliance even when spring is weeks away.

Early bloomers…

  • Witch Hazel
  • Cornelian Cherry
  • Forsythia
  • Pussy Willow
  • Azalea
  • Flowering Quince

For Later Blooms…

  • Magnolia
  • Apple
  • Crab Apple
  • Flowering Dogwood
  • Hawthorn
  • Red Bud
  • Mockorange

 Decorating With Forced Branches

There are many different ways you can add a little spring glory to your interior décor with forced branches. Consider…

  • Using blooming branches in lieu of any flowers in vases.
  • Putting shorter branches in bud vases on a windowsill.
  • Adding branches to candle centerpieces or other arrangements.
  • Twining thinner branches around a wreath form.
  • Using the tallest branches in a tall, thin floor vase.

Spring will be here before you know it, and you can speed it along when you force branches to enjoy their blooms a few weeks early!

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Worm-Casting Tea

Perhaps you have used compost tea on your plants and saw the amazing effect it had. However, if you think your plants loved their compost tea, try giving them a drink of worm-casting tea. No, it’s not the liquid dripping from the bottom of an elevated worm bin – so what is it?

Making Worm-Casting Tea

This “tea” is a liquid concoction made by steeping worm castings (worm poop) in water. This is an extracting process that draws the nutrients from the castings into the water so they can be more easily and quickly absorbed by thirsty plants. Use it on your plants by drenching the soil around the roots or spray onto the leaves for foliar absorption. Both spraying and drenching eliminate the labor of spreading solid compost. And, applied as a liquid, plant resistance to pests and diseases and microbial activity in the soil are all increased. While compost tea contains many beneficial microbes, it’s nothing compared to worm-casting tea that contains a much larger and diverse microbial population due to the various physiological life processes of the worm.

To really kick up the benefits of worm-casting tea, try aerobically brewing a batch. This simple process increases the microbial populations by circulating the microbes in a nutritious and aerated solution to double the population every 20 minutes. This method also eliminates any possibility of E. coli, which can be present in both compost and worm-casting tea brewed by extraction.

To brew your worm-casting tea…

  1. Connect 3’ of tubing to an air stone. Attach other end to small air pump.
  2. Put 4 gallons of water into a clean 5-gallon bucket. Let sit for 24 hours to allow chlorine to dissipate. Alternatively, use non-chlorinated water.
  3. Add:
    1. ¼ cup sulfur free molasses or corn syrup
    2. 1 tablespoon water-soluble sea plant extract
    3. 2 tablespoons soluble fish power or liquid fish
  4. Plug in pump and place air stone at bottom of bucket to begin agitation.
  5. Add 4-8 cups earthworm castings, crushed into small bits, if possible.
  6. Brew until a froth or slime appears on the water surface. The smell should now be gone or very weak. This indicates the maximum population has been reached and no food remains for the microbes to eat. This solution may contain over one billion microbes per teaspoon of solution! The overall brewing time is temperature dependent, however, and warmer solutions will brew more quickly. At all times, leave the bubbler on to continue oxygenating the microbes.
  7. Strain the solution to remove any solid particles. Apply to plants as soon as possible to take maximum advantage of your tea’s nutritious properties.

Note: The odor should be minimal or vaguely pleasant. If the smell is strongly unpleasant or similar to sulfur, do not use. Pour it over some weeds for a natural herbicide instead.

You can use your worm casting tea anywhere in your garden: upper and lower sides of leaves, on flowers, vegetables, trees, shrubs or soil. Spray in the early morning or evening or in the shade during the rest of the day. Use the remaining castings as you would any compost, after all, they still contain a diverse microbial population!

Now, raise your teacup and toast to a healthy, luxurious garden and landscape, all thanks to nutritious worm-casting tea!

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Vermicomposting

Have you tried vermicomposting, otherwise known as worm composting? This simple process mixes food scraps with yard waste and other organic materials in an enclosed area containing specific types of worms. The worms (and associated microorganisms) eat the organics and turn them into a beautiful light and fertile soil amendment. This compost is almost magical! It’s packed with nutrients, improves soil structure, increases drainage and appears to improve plant growth while decreasing pest damage and plant diseases. Not only environmentally friendly, vermicomposting doesn’t require much space, is inexpensive and easy, and it’s a fun hobby for the entire family.

The Worms

The two recommended worms for vermicomposting are Red Wigglers (Eisenia fetida) and European night crawlers (Eisenia hortensis). The latter grows bigger, eats coarser food and may be heartier. They each eat their own weight in food every other day. Do not use native earthworms, as they do not live well in bin conditions.

Most people begin with 1 lb (16 ounces) of worms. These will eat 8 ounces of food every day.

TIP: To determine your average daily food waste, weigh your food debris each day for a week. Add these amounts and divide by 7. (Do not include meat, fish, oily scraps, fat chunks, bones, or dairy products, as they are not suitable for the worms or compost.)

When you know your amount of food debris, buy twice as many pounds of worms. For example, if your average daily food debris is 1 pound, order 2 pounds of worms. If your average daily food debris is 4 ounces, order 8 ounces of worms.

The Worm Bin

Your worms will need a comfortable place to live. Provide a bin with a surface area that equals the weight of the worm order. In other words, if you order 2 pounds of worms, your worm container will require at least 2 square feet of bin surface (but should be larger). This could be 1’ wide by 2’ long.

Use non-treated wood, plastic, rubber or galvanized bins. A larger container houses more worms to compost more material. Worms do not burrow deeper than 24” therefore the bin should be less than 24” deep.

The bin needs a removable cover to protect from rain, light and drying out. Remove it if the bedding becomes too wet, but place a screen across the top to prevent worms from escaping. If needed, use a moistened strip of burlap or canvas to add moisture to the bin.

Unless using wood, which is naturally porous, provide ventilation in your bin by drilling 12-18 1/8” holes on all four sides. Drill holes on the bottom to prevent your worms drowning if moisture builds up.

Remember, your worm population will increase. When sizing your bin, allow an additional 40 percent of surface area for the increase in addition to the initial population’s requirement.

Positioning Your Bin

Where you put your bin should be convenient for both you and your worms. Elevate the container on bricks to improve ventilation and drainage of excess moisture.

Place the worm bin where it will not receive direct sunlight. In a shed or garage, under house eaves or other shade structure to maintain a temperature above freezing and below 85 degrees is perfect. In the winter, prevent freezing and insulate with sheets of foam on the top and sides, add a heating pad to one side, or move inside a building if needed.

Bin Bedding

Before adding your worms, you will need to add bedding to the container so they have a place to burrow. Soak and squeeze out the excess water from shredded fibrous materials such as newspaper, egg cartons or single-layer cardboard boxes. Mix in dry grass, brown leaves and/or straw. Add sawdust or aged manure, if available. Cover with a thin layer of well-moistened soil. This bedding will give your worms a great start and will help feed your compost.

Feeding Your Worms

Until your worms begin multiplying, only feed them once a week by adding a small amount of food scraps. Chopping or breaking food into small bits helps the worms eat the scraps faster and reduces any smells and fruit flies. Mix the food lightly into the bedding on one side of the worm bin.

Ideal foods to offer your worms include eggshells, non-citrus fruits, coffee grounds, unbleached used coffee filters, leafy green vegetables, rice, grits and vegetable scraps. Do not include meat, fish, oily scraps, fat chunks, bones, dairy products such as milk or cheese or cat or dog waste. Avoid eucalyptus leaves, as these contain a natural insecticide which could kill the worms. Additionally, if adding lawn clippings, be sure the grass hasn’t been chemically treated. Green foods such as leaves, vegetable tops and green grass add additional nitrogen to the finished compost. Eggshells increase the calcium in the final compost and brown foods such as paper, wood chips and leaves increase phosphate and carbon. The more varied your worms’ diet, the richer your compost will be.

When the worms begin to multiply, provide a weekly quart of food scraps per square foot of surface area. If your bin is 2’ square, provide 4 quarts of scraps per week to nourish your worms, but avoid overfeeding. One way to tell if you are feeding too much is by smell. If it smells bad, food is rotting instead of being eaten. Reduce the amount of food going into the bin until the smell disappears.

When adding food, be sure to check the amount of bedding. The bin was full of bedding when the worms were added. When reduced to half, add more newspaper or cardboard strips, hay, straw, etc.

Watering Your Worms

Check the bin every other day and moisten the material, if needed. It should be moist but not wet. Note that the types of scraps you add will contribute to the moisture in the bin, and you do not want any puddles or sopping that could suffocate and drown your worms.

Harvesting Compost

Your worm-assisted compost should be ready in 4-6 months. The easiest way to collect the compost is to scoop out small piles of the material and place onto a flat surface. Remove as many worms as possible and return the un-composted materials and worms to the bin. You may use a wire mesh netting as a screening device. Add more bedding and let the cycle begin again.

After removing the worms and chunks, what’s left? The grand prize of worm castings (poop)! This is the “magical compost.” Some people even call it “black gold” – it’s that fantastic for your garden.

Raising worms and producing your own super compost is easy and fun. Plus, it removes food waste from the local landfills and enriches your garden. What’s not to love?

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Magnificent Mountain Laurels

An undeniably beautiful shrub in any season, mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia) explodes into bloom in late spring to early summer. One of our nation’s greatest contributions to the botanical world, mountain laurels possesses beautiful, shiny, deep green foliage. They boast legendary clusters of star-like buds opening to delicate cup-shaped flowers with frilly edges. The flower buds emerge red, open pink or white and reveal purple dappled markings inside the flower, giving this shrub its nickname “calico bush.”

A native from Maine to Florida, these broadleaf evergreens intrigue but also sometimes frustrate the home gardener. With so many magnificent specimens growing wild in the eastern forests, why is it sometimes difficult to grow mountain laurel in the landscape?

Location

First, you will need to choose the right site. Mountain laurel will tolerate sun if there is adequate moisture and the root area is cool, but partial shade is preferable and shade will do if there is some morning sun available. Plant your mountain laurel where it has plenty of room to grow to maturity; it should not need to be pruned except to remove dead or damaged wood. Mountain laurels are slow-growing, reaching 4-8 feet over 10 years. This contributes to their irregular habit, creating an elegant specimen.

Planting

As a member of the heath family, which includes rhododendron, mountain laurel requires well-drained, rich, acidic soil. Replicate these conditions and your plant should thrive. Your soil pH should be 5.0-5.5, but if your pH is higher than 6.5 your mountain laurel may not survive and certainly will not thrive. Laurels seem to perform best in raised beds, heavily amended with sphagnum peat moss or finely ground pine bark. To plant, dig a hole three times as wide as the root ball. Set the plant at or above the depth as it was growing in its container or the size of the root ball. Do not plant it more deeply. Mix a handful of superphosphate to the amended planting soil, then backfill the hole and water thoroughly. Add a 3-inch layer of pine bark mulch to keep the roots cool in hot weather and to retain soil moisture. Check plant often throughout the season and water before soil dries out. Fertilize twice yearly with Holly-tone; once in the spring and half strength in the autumn to provide adequate nourishment.

Selections

There are many different mountain laurels to choose from, and the most popular varieties include…

  • Alpine Pink – Rich pink buds open to medium pink with a white throat.
  • Carousel – Starburst pattern inside the corolla. Good growth.
  • Hearts of Fire – Red buds open to a deep pink flower.
  • Nipmuck – Intense red buds open cream white to light pink while the back of the corolla is dark pink.
  • Olympic Fire – Large deep red buds open to pink flowers.
  • Pinwheel – Maroon flowers edged in white with a cinnamon-maroon band that almost fills the center of the corolla.
  • Snowdrift – Compact, mounded plant with pure white flowers.
  • Elf – White flowers on a dwarf plant.

* All plants subject to availability

Mountain laurels can be magnificent specimens to add to your landscape, try one today!

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