Houseplants add color, greenery and life to your home, especially during the long winter months.
Consider adding succulents to your houseplant collection, as they are hearty and easy-to-grow.
Many succulents have shallow root systems, fleshy leaves and don't require a lot of water. They like a lot of sun but not direct light on their leaves. Place your succulents in a bright room and keep its soil very well drained.
The most common succulents include aloe vera and jade plants.
Alongside being easy and fast-growing, the inner parts of aloe vera leaves can also provide soothing salve for burns and wounds.
Jade plants do well in a lot of sun in a bright room and well-drained soil. This plant doesn't grow as quickly as aloe but it will grow and can become tree-sized in the right conditions!
If you want to propagate your jade and give some other friends, take a cutting and then let it sit for about five days. When it calluses over, dip the cutting in a rooting hormone powder and place in a pot. From there, it will be off and running and will grow on its own.
Look for the many varieties of aloe and jade plants. Some vary in size and shape, like small rosette-shaped plants to long, thin ones.
A unique succulent to look for at your favorite garden center is the African milk tree. It looks kind of more like a cactus with spines on it. This succulent is in the Euphorbia family, with milky sap inside and grows straight up six to eight feet tall.
Need houseplant Rx? Charlie Nardozzi has a webinar, "All About Houseplants," coming up on Jan. 27 at 7 p.m.
Q: I researched and read that applying beneficial nematodes would seek out and kill grubs and eliminate the moles' food. I did this in a warm spring of 2001 and the moles have disappeared, never to return. - Greg, in Burlington
A: That is a great solution to eliminate moles from your yard and garden. Sometimes, to address an immediate problem, things like castor oil and castor oil pellets can drive away voles, moles and mice.
For longer-term solutions that may take longer to implement, plan to use beneficial nematodes. Those will kill grubs, which are the critters' main food source. Get rid of the grubs, get rid of the moles.
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