Greatest Hits 2022: 9 Best Practices for Sustainable Houseplants
Featured photograph by Jonathan Hökklo, courtesy of Lauren Snyder and Keith Burns, from In Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, a Renovated Brownstone with Inspired Solutions.
Greatest Hits 2022: Each day this week, we’re republishing the most popular posts of the year, in case you missed them the first time around. Many of us are trying to make smarter, more eco-friendly choices when it comes to our food, health, wealth, and the earth.
Photograph by Justine Hand, from DIY: How to Care for Aloe Vera, the Plant of Immortality.
Aloe is easy to propagate. You can also join (or organize) a plant-swapping community, a great way to meet like-minded people with whom you can share tips, tricks, and resources.
1. Propagate and share.
An empty can serves as a vessel for an air plant.
2. Buy secondhand pots.
Photograph by Emily Johnston, from The Accidental Jungle: Shabd Simon-Alexander’s Houseplants in a New York Apartment.
3. Rehabilitate sad plants.
Photograph by Mimi Giboin, from Plant Doctor: How to Save a Dying Houseplant.
Photograph by Nicholas Worley, courtesy of Simon Astridge Architecture Workshop, from Bathroom of the Week: A Japanese-Style Bath in London, Greenery Included.
Save your bath water for watering your plants. Or put a bowl under your colander to catch the excess when you wash lettuce or fruit.
Photograph by Mimi Giboin for Gardenista, from Homemade Garden Remedies: 5 Natural Solutions for Healthier Soil and Plants.
Avoid heavily synthetic fertilizers and the un-recyclable plastic containers they come in. Or, forgo fertilizer completely for the less fussy plants and instead, top-dress your pots with fresh soil when the levels naturally drop from soil compaction and soil escaping through the drainage holes.
6. Feed them naturally.
A baby Alocasia Zebrina houseplant from PLNTS.
7. Smaller is better.
If you want your poinsettia to re-bloom again the next year, it will take some effort.
8. Resist buying one-and-dones.
Photograph by Justine Hand, from 10 Things Nobody Tells You About Poinsettias.