Part 4: House plant housework
In the cosy indoor world of our house plants, there are none of the natural processes that would act on them in the outside world: no rain showers washing off debris, no strong breezes whisking away dead leaves, no herbivores or slugs keeping leaves in check by chomping on them, no birds and insects conquering aphids. So we must replace nature’s work with a little house plant housework: cleaning, pruning and tidying.
Fortunately, this is way more satisfying and fun than actual housework. It also provides the perfect opportunity to give our plants a once-over and spot any small problems before they become so serious that the plants end up outside on the compost heap.
House plant compost can be as ‘dirty’ as you like: encouraging a good balance of micro-organisms in compost helps plants to
