Indoor Plants: Guide to Greening Your Plant Care

1. Electric compost- these babies are like the magic carpets of apartment composting. You dump in food scraps (any food scraps) and in two weeks a little red light comes on, and you open a separate drawer and viola! Out comes amazing compost. Nature Mill (http://www.naturemill.com/index.html) is a very popular brand that many online users have suggested. They do run a bit expensive, starting around $300 so depending how serious you are about indoor composting, this very high tech option may or may not be the system for you. As the phrase goes, you get (amazing compost with no effort) what you pay for ($300).

2. Vermicompost-Also known as “worm composting” the basic idea is to mix earth worms or red worms with all your food scraps. (Earthworms and the like are a sign of healthy soil because their presence shows that there is little toxicity in the soil.) Vermicomposters are less expensive because they are totally DIY (do-it-yourself). To make one, buy a plastic bucket with a lid, preferably one that is nontransparent because worms live in the dirt, they don't like the sun. Drill holes in the top and sides so the buggers can breath. To get them nice and fat and happy before you start adding food scraps, put a layer of damp shredded newspaper or moist, broken down fallen autumn leaves (both of which have a high carbon content) on the bottom of the bin, followed by a good layer of finished compost.¹⁰ It is crucial to keep the bin contents very damp because worms need an environment with lots of moisture. It may get smelly after a while, however, so drilling holes in the bottom with a tray underneath will catch the excess water to minimize any bad smells. From there, add food scraps and let the worms do their magic. However, worms can only eat so much at one time so it is only necessary to give them a bit every day. Bury the food underneath the original soil so they can find it and only use eggshells and fruits and veggie scraps.¹¹ Meat and dairy are definite no-nos. This type of compost can take up to a few months so be patient and let the worms do their work! For more assistance with and ideas for composting at home, check out: http://www.greeniacs.com/GreeniacsGuides/Make-Your-Own-Compost.html, and http://www.greeniacs.com/GreeniacsGuides/How-to-Build-a-Composting-Toilet.html

1. If you are a coffee drinker or tea drinker, count your blessings. Coffee grinds and tea leaves are very acidic and have a high nitrogen content, an essential element in healthy soils.¹² Plant owners swear by coffee grounds, testifying that they make their roses bigger and brighter and their lemons juicer. Plus, you can even throw in tea bags and often filters because they're thin and decompose quickly.

2. Eggshells are a prime source of potassium and calcium.¹³ Give them a good crushing before you put them into your compost so they can breakdown faster.

3. Milk. Okay, I know I said no dairy, but there's always an exception to every rule. It makes sense that milk would make the list, considering all mammals practically live solely off this life-giving food for the first few months or years of their life. But using good milk is kind of wasteful, considering you could use it for cereal of whatever else you buy it for.¹⁴ But if your milk goes bad before you can consume it—after all, how much milk can a person drink in a week?!—using the soured milk is just as good and you don't have to toss the elixir of life down the drain. Since it is a liquid, instead mix it with water (1 part milk, 4 parts water) and use it directly to water the plants as a nutritional and hydrating source.

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