How to Have Happy Houseplants

Are your houseplants sad, droopy, or dare we say it, dead? Have they unwillingly become the hot spot for a spider mite house party? Don’t worry, it probably wasn’t your fault. One day the houseplants seemed fine and the next, well, they were sad plants.You can make your houseplants happy again. 

It is time to shed the “brown thumb” moniker and embrace your green potential. Hosting healthy houseplants is all just a matter of knowing their basic needs and then meeting them on a consistent basis. This includes protecting them from pests and over enthusiastic owners. 

Get to Know Your Houseplants

Just as in any relationship, the first step in making a houseplant happy is to really get to know it. While all plants have similar needs (light, water and food), different types of plants require different amounts of each of these things to help them survive and thrive. 

Have any of your houseplants been the victim of mistaken identity? Similar-looking houseplants may have different needs. Find out the specific names and varieties of your houseplants, so you can research their ideal conditions. 

Every relationship requires some effort, but if you are willing to make the investment, your plants can be with you for a long time. Eventually, you will learn what works for your particular greenies; giving them proper care will then be easy and routine.When it comes to houseplants, it is a “which comes first” decision.

 Do you choose houseplants based on your home conditions or adapt your home conditions to suit the houseplants that you love? Both can be done, but if you are starting from scratch, is easiest to choose houseplants that will thrive on the amount of light and humidity that is normal for your home. That is not to say that some temperamental, but beautiful, houseplants might not be worth the compromise. 

Seeing the Light

While houseplants love their natural light, many will also thrive in artificial light as well. First, determine how much natural light is present in your home, and use this knowledge to help make your houseplants happy. 

You may need a compass to discover window direction. Most smart phones contain a built in compass that can help you discover your home’s orientation, and the sun exposure for each window.

Houseplants that are spindly and thin, and flowering plants that don’t bud or bloom may be unhappy with the amount of light they are receiving.You will need to get them more light. Conversely, if your plants look faded and ghost-like, they are trying to tell you, “enough with the light.”

 Move plants away from the direct light source to reduce the exposure and make them happy.  (Secondary fading can also be caused by too little water or not enough fertilizer.Natural light is sunlight. Your houseplants should come with details about the amount of natural light they need to thrive. Conduct Internet research or ask a garden center, if you aren’t sure of your plant's sunlight requirements.  

Meanwhile, here is a general guide to natural light exposure. 

• Full Sun: A window with south exposure lets in the most light, and this is considered full sun.
• Medium or Bright Indirect: East and west facing windows allow a moderate or average amount of light into a room. 
• Low Light or Indirect Light: Northern windows let in the least amount of natural light. 

In addition to window orientation, there are other factors in and around your home that may contribute to the amount of natural light available to your houseplants. Trees, bushes and awnings can block natural light and reduce the amount that actually reaches houseplants. 

Natural sunlight may increase when it is reflected off snow or light colored buildings near your home. How close a houseplant is near a window will also determine how much natural sunlight it receives, even if the entire room appears to be equally bright to human eyes. If you are unsure of how much natural light your houseplants may be receiving, conduct the shadow test.

Place an object near your houseplant, or in any location of your home where houseplants live. Next, check the shadow. The darker and more intense the shadow, the more light that is reaching that spot. This is an easy check that can be conducted at any time of year, as long as the sun is up; it will allow you to check for varying light conditions.  

Artificial Light

If you are sadly lacking in natural light, you can still keep your houseplants happy. Just employ the use of artificial light, as a supplement, or as a full light source for your plant, if needed. 

Many houseplants are perfectly happy with artificial light. Grow lights are the most effective artificial light sources for houseplants. Generally composed of fluorescent tubes, grow lights for plants may need to be lit for up to 16 hours a day, depending on how light challenged your location happens to be. 

Some houseplants are natural light “snobs” and do poorly with artificial light. Flowering plants in particular may protest a lack of natural light by refusing to bud or bloom for you. You may need to experiment with different brands of grow lights to find the ones that make your particular plants happiest. 

Water Me

Do you wonder if plants sit around telling horror stories of the plant that was forced to go weeks without water until it was a dried up husk? It would be a common household story. Improper watering can have devastating consequences to houseplants, and this includes over watering, inconsistent watering, and over watering. 

One of the most common mistakes homeowners make is to respond to a droopy or wilted plant by watering more often. Often the root of the problem is a sickness causes by the roots being too wet. The roots begin to decay (root rot).

 Sometimes just allowing the soil to dry out and then watering carefully will give the plant time to recover. Sometimes the plant is too far gone to survive. Either way, giving the houseplant more water will only seal its fate. 

Outside of providing your plants with the right lighting conditions, learning how to water your plants may be the single most important thing you can do to foster healthy greenery.  Here are some general tips on watering plants.

• Always check the soil before watering. Changes in light, humidity, temperature and plant growth can affect the amount of water a plant needs on a given day. Lifting the pot can also tell you how much water is needed. 
• Water slowly. Watering too quickly or giving your plants too much water at one time can cause the water to simply run off and not be available to the plant.
• Focus on the roots when watering. Applying water to the leaves doesn’t usually do any good, and can actually promote disease.
• Water in the morning. Establishing a morning routine can help you remember to water your plants, plus if you accidentally get water on the leaves, they will have time to dry out with the help of the day’s light and heat. 
• Remove any excess water that drains away into the pot’s saucer. This should be done within the hour of the initial watering. 
• Remember that houseplants often need more water in the winter because of home heating conditions. 
• Plastic pots retain more water, while unglazed clay pots dry out faster.
• Plants that are too large for their pots will require more water.
• Plants that are too small for their pots will have a hard time getting to all of the water in their potting soil and may appear to be over watered.
• Municipal tap water may contain chemicals that are harmful to houseplants. To counteract this, use bottled water, or set tap water out in a container for a day, to allow any chemicals to evaporate before watering. 
• If your home has a water softener, the salts in the system can damage roots. Collect water from outdoor natural sources or use bottled water. 
• If you choose a to use a self watering system, monitor your plants carefully for the first few weeks and make adjustments as needed. 

Banishing Pests

Oh, creepy crawlies on houseplants are enough for some homeowners to ditch the plants entirely, but remember, you now have a solid relationship with your houseplants; friends don’t toss friends because of a few bugs. 

The biggest problem with plant pests is that they can quickly spread.  Regularly inspect leaves and wash them every few weeks. 

Dust and grime not only attracts pests, but it can also clog pores on leaves, making it difficult for the plant to “breathe.”  Insecticidal soap for plants is available in spray form. 

Here is some helpful information to prevent and treat for plant pests.

• Always check new plants for insects before you bring them home, otherwise you may wind up with an infestation. 
• Take the extra precaution of isolating any newcomers to your houseplant community for a couple of weeks, just to be sure. 
• Avoid dusting your plants with a duster. Bugs and their eggs can hitchhike from home plant to the next. 
• When bringing a plant in from the outside, pull the plant out of the pot and inspect the soil. Bugs may have crawled in through the drainage holes.
• Use a magnifying glass to check the undersides of leaves to catch pests in their earliest stages when it is easiest to get rid of them. 
• If you choose to use an insecticide, make sure that it is approved for use indoors and on houseplants. 
• Common houseplant pests include aphids, mealybugs, spider mites, fungus gnats, pillbugs, millipedes, slugs, scales, and whiteflies. 
• Healthy and vigorous plants are more likely to be resistant to pests.

Feed Me

Homeowners who regularly fertilize their lawns and gardens often don’t recognize the need to feed indoor plants. Is this you? All plants need certain nutrients to thrive. In an outdoor environment, plants fend for themselves, sending out long roots to gather the food they need. Isolated indoors in pots, they are at your mercy for their food. 

Regular feedings of these plant nutrients will make your plants happy:

• Nitrogen (N) helps promote good foliage.
• Phosphorous (P) helps promote root growth.
• Potassium (K) helps promote blooming in flowering plants. 

Fertilizer packaging lists the amounts of these three nutrients, as percentages, in the order of N, P, K. A listing of 10-10-10 means there is 10 percent of each of these chemicals, with the remaining 70 percent of material being inert additives. 

Fertilizer is available in both organic or synthetic form, and both appear to be equally effective for your plants, although organic fertilizer works by breaking down slowly, and it will take longer to act. Synthetic fertilizer is available as powder or in time release capsules. 

There are specialty fertilizers for specific plants. For example, azaleas prefer an acid fertilizer with a low pH. Read the labels carefully, so you know exactly what you are getting. 

There are at least four different ways to apply fertilizer to your houseplants. 

• Mix the powder directly into the soil.
• Place time release capsules into the soil.
• Use water to dilute the powder or time release capsules and pour measured doses into the soil.
• Use a spray fertilizer directly onto the leaves of the plant.

Research the needs of your specific houseplants to know which form of delivery will make your plants happiest. 

Tips for using fertilizer:

• Thoroughly moisten the soil. 
• Be conservative in your use. Too much fertilizer can burn the roots and kill the plant
• Feed plants during active growing phases, generally in the spring and the summer seasons. 

The Five Best Ways to Prevent Bed Bugs so You Can Sleep Easier

According to the 2015 Bedbugs Without Borders survey, produced by the NPMA and the University of Kentucky, bedbugs are "found seemingly everywhere" and in higher numbers and in more places than ever before, from day care centers to college dorms.

Even the cleanest of homes could become subject to bedbugs if the home owners aren’t careful. They are present in all fifty states.

What makes things worse, is that bedbugs are difficult to remove from a home once they are present. They hide in the most unusual places and don’t respond to standard methods of pest removal, so the best thing anyone can do is to try to prevent them from entering the home first. An infestation can be both uncomfortable and expensive, with the going rate for extermination in the $1,200 range. 

Check The Environment

Bedbugs can hitch a ride home on clothing, suitcases, wood furniture and more. If you are in a room with bedbugs, chances are they will find a way to invite themselves to your house. Checking your environment for the critters is the first step. Do a basic inspection of your hotel room, visually inspecting the headboard, mattress, box spring and pulling back the sheets. You may spot the begs themselves or little brown spots that indicate their waste. 

Unpack Outside

After a trip, unpack your suitcase in the garage and put them through a hot wash or regular wash with a warm or hot dry cycle. If you suspect a suitcase or bag to have possible contamination, seal it up, air tight in a bag, and let it sit for two or more weeks. 

Cover and Protect

Since one of the favorite places for bedbugs to hang out is the mattresses (the better to crawl out at night and bite their victims), protecting the mattress and box spring with encasements so they can’t get in. You can also purchase a device that prevents bedbugs from climbing up to the bed from the floor. While these steps won’t prevent bedbugs from getting into your home, they will keep you safe from nighttime bites and make the issue easier to remedy.

Be Careful with Second Hand Furniture

While most people wouldn’t think twice about not picking up a used mattress, the real danger might be the cute chair left on the curb, the great stool you found on Craigslist or the set of pretty wooden frames from the Goodwill. Bedbugs have been known to hide in almost any porous surface or crevice they can find, from a roll of wallpaper to a jewelry box. Be wary of used items and inspect them thoroughly before bringing them home. 

Act Quickly

Most bedbug infestations start out with just a few bugs, so if you can get on top of the "beasties," you can prevent an invasion. Regularly clean and inspect your home. Use a flashlight at night to check in, around and under under the bed, behind the headboard and behind picture frames and furniture. If you spot what you think is a bedbug, snag it with a piece of clear tape and call an exterminator immediately. If bedbugs are confirmed, quick treatment is crucial. Don’t try to tackle it by yourself, because you may inadvertently spread the bugs. 

How to Make Your House Practically Clean Itself so You Don’t Have to

If you want to know how to have a house that practically cleans itself, read on. Small changes will make maintaining your home easier, allowing you the extra time you need to do the things you love to do. Banish the dust bunnies and get the clutter under control with lifestyle changes that make it easy to have rooms that are permanently clean. 

Fake It Until You Make It

Stand at the front door (or the entrance of a room) and look inside. What immediately catches your eye? If the sight line of a room looks clean, the whole room will give that impression. Take a look at those areas and see if you can rearrange things or change the way you do things to keep the sight line uncluttered. For example, don’t put the mail smack dab on the fist surface you see when you walk in the door. Place it where you wouldn’t notice it at first. 

Choose Things That Keep Themselves Clean

I very seldom buy clothes that are dry clean only, because I don’t want the time or expense of taking them to the dry cleaners. I’ve adapted this strategy to my home decor, choosing items that practically keep themselves clean. Dust can be removed from a flat, painted table in a few seconds, using a chamois cloth stored in one of its drawers. In contrast, an ornate wooden table with intricate scroll work requires getting out different kinds of supplies, such as polishing oil, multiple clothes and brushes to get dust out of the crevices, and then spending time each week keeping it clean. 

Be a Chunky Monkey

There is a reason successful organizing gurus, such as Peter Walsh and the FlyLady advocate housekeeping in 15 minute chunks. Separating necessary tasks out into small bits of time gets the job done without you really noticing the work. Find ways to get cleaning tasks for a few minutes when you can. For example, while you are brewing your coffee or waiting for water to boil, you can spray and wipe down a kitchen countertop or toss away some junk mail. 

Why is everyone struggling financially?

The reason so many people struggle financially is because we live beyond our means.

People do not want to be told no and do not want to restrict their own wants and desires. This is where the problem starts.

Next, mass media, social media, radio, television, websites, etc… constantly “tell you” that you need this or that… to look better, to feel better, you deserve it, because everyone has it…

This constant stream or marketing and advertising hitting your brain never takes a break and it is a form of brainwashing where people convince themselves they need all these things to survive in the world when in reality only need a few things to survive.

Moreover, people are convinced that things and stuff will bring happiness. Before you know it, you have spent more than you earn and start to borrow using a credit card. Pretty soon you get caught up in the comparison trap and everyone’s highlight reel of Facebook and Instagram. We see that everyone has such amazing awesome lives on social media and desire to have the same thing. The problem is that this is all fantasy… it is the BIG LIE we tell ourselves. No one has such a life, maybe a few but most people just want to fit in a world where you are judged by what you wear, what own and what you drive or what job you have…

This perception of what will bring happiness is a house of cards… it creates a spending pattern that quietly and consistently drains all your resources until you look up and realize you are in huge financial trouble.

I know this because I coach people every week trying to dig out of huge holes and the stories are all the same… it is really sad, but you can be the “hero of your own story!”

The solution to the problem is to “disconnect” from things in a daily basis and simply ground yourself on the essentials of life.

Here is the list of the things we need:

1.       Dwelling - A place to live (rented or owned) but NOT a mansion. A roof over your head is needed.

2.      Clothing - basic clothing. NOT designer clothes.

3.      Utilities - need to pay the electric bill, water, telephone and internet.

4.      Food - groceries, NOT eating out.

5.      Transportation to and from work. A bike, simple car, walking can all achieve this. You do NOT need a BMW to survive.

6.      We need Love. We need other people. We need to talk, not text. We NEED relationships. We need to care for others and for others to care about us.

If people lived in a budget and told there money where it was going they would be far better off.

Most people have too much month left at the end of the money.

Try living a simpler life. Get rid of the “stuff” and the clutter and focus on building relationships. Do not play the “comparison” game. Have “plastic surgery” and cut up the credit cards… tell them goodbye forever!

You will find your life is simpler and you will have more money. When you have less stuff, you will have more time, more freedom and more money!

If you want financial freedom, look at the person in the mirror and say… NO MORE! I am taking my life back!

Why do some logo designs cost millions?

There is more to designing a logo than a few sketches and an hour with Illustrator software.

The majority of time spent on a logo is with the client, in meetings and interviews to determine the goals of the company, the target audience, the corporate or product spirit and aesthetic. This is typically called a “needs assessment.”

Next comes the exploratory stage, in which lots of informal sketches will be done to try and capture that essence in different ways, with a mark, typography, custom lettering, etc.. During this informal stage, there may be five or more suitable logo “approaches” made to arrive at a rough logo that addresses the client’s needs.

During this phase, extensive research must be done by the designer, or other researchers in the design firm, to determine that no other logo like it exists. After all, the client is paying for a proprietary design to represent them or their product. They don’t want it to look similar to a competing product or company. There are data sources for this research, from all over the world, and these sources are very expensive and time consuming to use. Representing your work as original and then determining that it is similar to something that is already in use in Australia or China is not only embarrassing, it’s potentially costly, in both legal fees and potential damages if a client sues you.

More meetings with the client and a next phase of showing the various ideas on different applications (applied to different media) such as stationery, signage, advertising, product packaging, editorial print, media (screen) etc. These are useful to see how the potential designs will fare in a variety of sizes from very large to very small, from full color to black and white or a corporate color. A logo must meet all these requirements for a product or corporate client.

Next, the client will choose or narrow down their choices to two or three final designs, and more work will be done to create sample implementations of those designs. Usually, the work will then be shared within the corporation or company; with their board of directors, their senior staff. Then a final design will be selected.

Once selected, the final design will need to be trademarked and registered as belonging to the client. This protects the client in the future, should anyone try to copy or appropriate the logo and use it inappropriately. Then it will be rendered in a Usage or Style Guide, which is a book or binder showing all the major uses or applications of a logo. These include signage, advertising large and small, stationery including business cards, product packaging, online, various media, etc. It will also indicate what colors (specific industry standards are used) and also advice for “clear space” or distance from other text that will be required when the logo is used or reproduced. These guides will be printed or reproduced for distribution within the company for use by the graphic designers and external to the company to advertisers responsible for creating ads.

This does not account for the cost of implementation or roll out, the process of releasing and using the new logo and replacing the old logo on all the various media already in existence.

So depending on a company’s size and reach, designing a new logo is not taken lightly or capriciously. It is a conscious and deliberate process that takes time, resources and money.

What is a cool tech hack that you've done?

Several months ago, I purchased a television, one of those expensive Samsung models. Alas, after just two months, the TV began to manifest strange signs and symptoms. It would just turn off on its own and then boot up, before turning off again and rebooting and turning off…and there was no end to it.

I was devastated. I was nonplussed. I was flummoxed, bewildered and bemused. I was heartbroken. I was not happy at all, in short. So I ran over to Google and typed in the question: “How does someone who laboured to buy an expensive TV repair it before having a heart attack?”

Just kidding, I didn’t exactly ask that…but you get the idea, right?

Anyway, after sifting through the internet for hours, I finally found a website which had the “solution” I was looking for. This American fellow had a similar TV model to mine, with the same issues and he solved it by…wait for it…he solved it by hitting the back of his TV very hard, three times. He hit his TV like that out of frustration and anger and lo! The problem ceased immediately!

I felt disappointed…I thought, ‘what kind of stupid suggestion is this?’…until I read the comments under that fellow’s advice. Someone said, “Wow, I didn’t believe this but I was desperate, so I tried it. It worked! Thank you so much!” There were about 5 other comments like that as well. Hmm, what’s going on here?

So, I decided to try it even though voices in my head were warning me that I would soon be mourning the death of my TV. I thought I heard something like, “Young man, don’t compare yourself to those Americans- their hands are quite soft. Your strong Nigerian hand will destroy this TV”.

I closed my eyes for a short prayer before delivering three powerful slaps to the back of my TV. ‘Spare the rod and spoil the child’…I think I have seen that statement somewhere in the Bible...maybe...I'm not sure it says that exactly.

Well, after that harsh treatment, the TV went off…then came back on. And since then (three months now), it has not shown the worrying symptoms it used to! Now I don’t know if it was ‘luck’, a miracle or a response to disciplinary action…but it worked!

How do top students study?

His success story:

1) Discipline: He had no Facebook during his undergraduate years, and probably only went online for doing homework, assignments or coordinating projects. This reduced his distraction span to zero.

2) Emotional Intelligence: He could control his emotional and sexual impulses. He was very socially intelligent around diverse groups, but he had in mind that having a girlfriend during his undergraduate years would be a major distraction. Both he and I when we were freshman knew that we wanted to go to USA for a PhD, so we were lifelong buddies who always noticed the good and bad things about each other. While I would sometime complain that he didn't go out on weekends (because he never did), he would always complain that I cared too much about appearance, partying and personal marketing. He was not socially handicapped as some people might think a 'nerd' would be, he was actually a very mature person who could talk about anything.

3) Sacrifice: We came from a place where dogs literally walked inside our classroom, and cockroaches would on occasion crawl in our backpack in class. He didn't let any of this get to him. He actually used the poor infrastructure of our engineering building as a motivation, something like "one day I'm going to get out of this hell hole, and do something great for science". He also had a great sense of patriotism.

4) Stellar passion and motivation: The first semester, I found out that he had the highest GPA of the whole class, and I immediately called him by the phone. I didn't understand a thing of what he said because the signal was low. However, the next day he seemed very depressed and told me that his grandfather had passed away. His grandfather was like his father to him and he never got the chance to tell him that he achieved first place in his engineering class. Little did we know, after a couple of weeks we realized not only was he the first in class, he was first in the entire campus achieving the highest GPA (grades in Peru are from 0 to 20, and with no curve). He graduated Summa Cum Laude 2 years ago, and got the highest GPA at our university over the last 30 years. The other person previous to him was Barton Zwiebach, a renowned Peruvian string theorist and Professor at MIT.

5) No pain, no gain: He went overkill sometimes to achieve his goal. I'm talking things like not having lunch to study an extra hour, sleep 4-5 hours a day at least 5 days a week, sleeping on the bus to get extra sleep time, and most dazzling thing of all was that most of the time he didn't go to class. He just stayed studying in the library and was at least 2 or 3 weeks ahead of the professor. Even if he did go to class, he rarely paid attention, he would go over his books to see what methods other authors would teach. He would buy and download at least 5 different books per subject and read them all to learn and to study for the test. He would go over all the proofs and learn them, study them, do them, sometimes reinvent the proofs or see if he could grasp the concept in anticipation of what the book would reveal.

6) Selecting friends: His paradigm for selecting friends (or colleagues) was impressive. He didn't care if it was me (a spoiled rich kid), or the son of a blue-collar family that was a national math Olympiad. He valued people for their ideas and it didn't matter to him where they were from, but where they were going.

7) Becoming a preacher: He was never reluctant on teaching. Whenever anyone would ask him something he would go over the concepts and explain it to him. This was really beneficial for our closed group of friends, as we each learned different concepts and he checked with us or we discussed any doubts we had.

8) Be ambitious: All of his life, he was the best at everything he did. Before enrolling at our engineering school, he was making around $3000 a month by only winning Magic The Gathering Card competitions, and he was Peru's #1 player and Ranked in the top 10 world wide. *Not bad for a 16 year old, at that time.

9) He majored in Robotics Engineering: So yes, he did learn Optimal and Digital Control, Fourier Analysis, Triple integrals, differential equations, etc.. We didn't have computers for our programming tests, they were all done on pen and paper.

10) He was incredibly humble.

He started graduate school at 22