Plant Maintenance

Owning plants, whether indoors or outside your home, can be extremely rewarding. Not only do plants look beautiful, making your environment brighter, lighter and more vibrant, owning plants can also have profound mental health benefits. The act of looking after and maintaining plants can be extremely rewarding. Being a plant owner can help increase our sense of purpose and our self-worth. It’s no wonder plant owning is increasing in popularity!

It’s rare to find someone that doesn’t have at least one plant in their home. Whether you’re fully-immersed with green fingers at the ready, or you’re just dabbling with a well-loved desk plant, there are a few essential things all plant owners need to know.

Whether you’re a plant owner or not, it’s pretty common knowledge that all plants depend on five things for survival: light, temperature, water, nutrients, air and moisture. All living organisms need these five elements for survival, therefore, you must provide these for your plants.

In this blog post, we’ll be exploring some lesser-known elements of plant maintenance in Orange County to make sure you’ve covered all basis in the pursuit of making your plants as happy and healthy as can be.

Pruning

Pruning is an essential element of plant maintenance. Think of pruning your plants as giving them a haircut. To ensure your hair keeps growing, it needs to be as healthy as can be. Old and dead leaves are holding your plants back from flourishing. Cut off any dead or dying leaves to help your plant grow.

Dusting

Dusting isn’t just reserved for bookcases and old ornaments; plants need dusting too. Plants grow using photosynthesis. Photosynthesis can only take place if your plant is receiving the sunlight they need. If your plant is too dusty, you’re in danger of limiting the amount of photosynthesis that can take place.

Dusting your plant with a damp wipe every so often will remove unwanted dust, letting your plant soak up optimum sunlight and grow to its full potential.

Drainage

A common mistake plant owners make is overwatering their plants. Fear of under watering and drying plants out often results in overwatering and drowning plants. Drainage holes can help avoid overwatering your plants.

Before watering your plants, make sure to feel the soil. The soil of your plant should be dry. The soil shouldn’t just be surface dry but dry a few inches below the surface too.

If you do accidentally overwater your plant, having a planter with drainage holes will help drain any excess water. Allowing your plant to stew in old water can cause root rot and potentially kill your plant. After watering your plant, check to see if any excess water has drained and make sure to dispose of this straight away.

Pruning, dusting and drainage are essential plant maintenance that are often overlooked. Paying close attention to these will increase the health and quality of your indoor and outdoor plants.

Adding these simple steps to your everyday plant maintenance in Orange County, will ensure your indoor and outdoor plants are as happy and as healthy as can be!