Archive for Gardening

10 Pet-Friendly Houseplants That Are Safe for Cats and Dogs

Pet-friendly house plants

It is possible to enjoy a home filled with houseplants even if you have a cat or dog. Here are 10 houseplants that are safe to have in your home if you have pets.

10 Pet-Friendly Houseplants That Are Safe for Cats and Dogs

It is possible for pets and plants to coexist in the same home. While you should try to keep your plants away from your pet’s reach, accidents can always happen. To keep your furry friends safe from potential poisoning from toxic plants, keep only non-toxic plants in your home if you have cats or dogs.

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10 Pet-Friendly Succulents That Are Safe for Cats and Dogs

Pet-friendly Succulents

It is possible to have succulents in your home even if you have pets. Here are ten types of succulents that are non-toxic and safe to have in a home with cats and dogs.

10 Pet-Friendly Succulents That Are Safe for Cats and Dogs

It is possible to have both pets and succulents living together peacefully in the same home. While you should try to keep your succulents and other houseplants out of your furry friend’s reach, it is always possible for accidents to happen despite your best intentions. To keep your fur babies safe from possible poisoning, keep only pet-safe succulents (and pet-friendly plants in general) in your home if you have pet cats or dogs.

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How to Set Up and Use a Bokashi Bucket for Indoor Composting

How to set up and use a bokashi bin

Bokashi is an alternative to traditional composting that allows you to turn kitchen waste into a valuable soil amendment for your garden using a process of anaerobic fermentation. It’s an easy, odorless, and eco-friendly way to deal with kitchen scraps.

How to Set Up and Use a Bokashi Bucket for Indoor Composting

Bokashi is an alternative to traditional composting that allows you to turn kitchen waste into a valuable soil amendment for your garden. Though the process is often referred to as “bokashi composting,” it is actually a process of fermenting organic waste material using specialized microbes rather than composting. A bran powder inoculated with specific bacteria is added to kitchen waste in an air-tight container to begin the fermentation process. Once the bucket is filled and allowed to age for two weeks, the fermented pre-compost can then be added directly to the soil to add nutrients and improve soil texture, or it can be added to a traditional compost pile and allowed to finish breaking down.

Bokashi composting can be done indoors and can odorlessly process waste that usually isn’t added to regular compost piles, such as oily foods, cooked foods, bones, dairy, and meat. Because of these unique features, bokashi composting is ideal for people who live in apartments or who are unable to manage a regular compost pile. Bokashi composting can even be a beneficial addition for people who do have a traditional compost pile and/or a worm bin simply because there is virtually no limit to the types of organic waste that can be processed by bokashi.

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A Guide to Portulacaria afra: The Elephant Bush

A Guide to the Elephant Bush

This is a guide to caring for one of my favorite succulents; the elephant bush. It includes information on basic care, propagation, different varieties, and fun facts about this plant.

A Guide to Portulacaria afra: The Elephant Bush

Elephant bush (Portulacaria afra) is a slow-growing, shrubby succulent plant native to South Africa. As a succulent, elephant bush is drought-tolerant and loves dry, sunny areas. It grows best in arid, desert-like environments.

Elephant bush gets its name from the fact that it is a favorite food of elephants. Other common nicknames for this plant include porkbush, spekboom, elephant food, and dwarf jade (though it is not closely related to the jade plant).

Elephant bush is a versatile succulent and can be grown to meet a number of different aesthetics. It’s trailing, leafy stems make it a good choice for hanging baskets. Because of its tree-like growth habit, it also makes for a relatively easy bonsai. Though it is rare for this plant to bloom when grown indoors as a houseplant, it is possible for it to produce clusters of pink or white star-shaped flowers in ideal growing conditions.

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Why Are Monarch Butterflies in Danger?

Why are monarch butterflies in danger?

Monarch butterfly populations are in rapid decline. Find out why these iconic butterflies are in danger, and what you can do to save them.

Why Are Monarch Butterflies in Danger?

Monarch butterflies are important pollinators in our ecosystem. Without pollinators, we humans, and most other animals, wouldn’t have much of the food we rely on for survival. Pollinators such as monarch butterflies are a vitally important part of the food chain. Butterflies are important indicators of the overall health of the environment and ecosystem where they reside.

Additionally, monarch butterflies are considered a “flagship” species for conservation. This means that they are a well-known, well-liked, and easily recognizable species that people are more willing to get involved with conserving. These butterflies help to get people involved in efforts to protect and restore habitats, which benefits not only monarchs, but other pollinators as well. Simply put, these butterflies inspire people to help protect the environment.

Unfortunately, these iconic pollinators are in danger, in no small part due to human influence. Because of human activities such as agriculture, pesticide use, urban development, and pollution leading to climate change, monarch butterfly populations are in rapid decline. Here are some of the biggest threats faced by monarch butterflies, and what we can do to help them before it is too late.

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A Guide to Ohio’s 13 Native Milkweed Species

Ohio's Native Milkweed Species

There are 13 native species of milkweed that occur in Ohio. This guide will help you to identify them.

A Guide to Ohio’s 13 Native Milkweed Species

Milkweed is a very important part of Ohio’s native ecosystem. It is critically important for Monarch butterflies, whose population have been in severe decline in recent years due to habitat loss from urban development, agriculture, and pesticide use. Monarch caterpillars rely on milkweed as their one and only food source, so this is where adult female monarch butterflies lay their eggs.

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How to Protect Milkweed Plants From Aphids, Naturally

Protect your milkweed plants from aphid attacks

Are aphids infesting your milkweed plants? Follow these tips to naturally get rid of aphids and prevent them from coming back, while keeping the monarch butterflies that visit your plants safe!

How to Protect Milkweed Plants From Aphids, Naturally

The most common aphid species you are likely to find infesting your milkweed plants is the tiny orange Aphis nerii, also known by the common names oleander aphid or milkweed aphid. These aphids suck the sap out of milkweed plants and can reduce flower and seed pod fertility of the plants. As an invasive species, beneficial native insects are less effective at controlling them than they are in controlling native aphid species. In extreme cases of infestation, aphids may completely kill your milkweed plants, destroying the monarch butterfly habitat you worked so hard to create.

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Five Great Native Flowers for Pollinator Gardens in Northeast Ohio

Ohio native plants for pollinators

Attract local pollinators, including bees and butterflies, to your Northeast Ohio garden with these 5 native flowers.

Five Great Native Flowers for Pollinator Gardens in Northeast Ohio

A pollinator garden is simply a garden that features many plants preferred by pollinator species, such as bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. Of all the food that humans (and all other creatures) rely on to survive, 80% requires pollination by insects or other animals. Due to human influence in causing climate change, habitat loss, and pollution, pollinator species populations have been rapidly declining in recent years.

By planting a pollinator garden in your own backyard, you can help to do your part in restoring populations of these important species. By planting native pollinator-friendly plants, you help to feed and restore habitat for these creatures that we rely on for our own survival.

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