Preparing Your Home for Plants

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With summer getting ready to draw to a close and the Old Farmers Almanac warning of a cold winter, now is a great time to check the best home improvement tips and prepare your home for bringing your plants indoors. At first, it might appear counter-intuitive that the air in your home can actually be worse for plants than that of the outdoors but in home air quality can have a significant effect on your plants, even those normally indoors. To protect your plants from the weather you often bring them inside but you should also make sure they are protected indoors.

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Good Air/Bad Air

During colder seasons, we tend to allow less air exchange between outdoor and indoor air. This is especially true with more modern homes, as they are built to a higher efficiency standard than older homes. Thus, preventing less air intrusion from the outdoors. Over time, this indoor air can become static and contain more pollutants. This of course then be transferred to the plants building up in the root and stem systems, potentially causing harm to your plants.  

Air Heating

Plants can’t put on clothes to keep warm but by the same token, they can’t shed clothes when they are warm. Maintaining a consistent temperature for your plants is important to their health. In addition to potential temperature fluctuations, some furnaces are inefficient and can allow combustion byproducts to enter the air stream. Again, causing pollutants that the plants uptake. So before you bring your plants indoors, make sure you heating and cooling system is properly serviced and maintained. While this might seem like an expensive proposition for preparing your home for your plants, many companies offer discounts for HVAC service

Reduce Aerosols

Making sure your heating and cooling are in proper conditions is one way to prepare but another means of preparation is reducing your reliance on aerosols. From spray on cologne to spray cleaning supplies and even cooking spray, aerosols place particulates in the air that can be toxic to plants with increased exposure. Cutting back on using aerosols helps protect your plants especially during a time of year when there is plenty of non-moving static air. 

From ornamentals to vegetables, plants bring joy to us and our environment. Protecting our planets also protects us and that means taking the effort to prepare your home and your plants for winter. Just bringing them indoors from the harsh cold won’t protect them, you have to make sure your home is ready so the plants can continue to do what they do best, and that is growing.