5 tips for healthy houseplants

Your houseplants need love, too. Give them the royal treatment to ensure their vitality.

• Mature plants develop defenses against many kinds of insects and diseases, but fragile seedlings can be wiped out by soil-borne diseases or insects.
• Use this money-saving recipe to make a sterile potting medium for sprouting garden seeds, and also for making potting soil to protect valued houseplants.

• 1 part sifted garden soil
• 2 parts sphagnum peat moss
• 2 parts coarse sand

1. In a large container, mix all ingredients together.

2. To sterilize, moisten and place ingredients in a shallow baking pan with a baking potato and bake at 93ºC (200ºF) until the potato is done. This is a smelly process, ideal for doing on an outdoor grill.

• To preserve culinary herbs for use in winter, dig the plants from the garden in August and transfer them to pots.
• Place the pots on a sunny windowsill indoors.
• For best results, select vigorous but compact plants and use 15 centimetre (six inch) clay pots.

This mix is made of sterile materials bought at a garden centre and does not need to be baked.

• 1 part vermiculite
• 1 part milled sphagnum moss
• 1 part perlite

1. In a large container, mix all the ingredients together.

2. Moisten with warm water before using.

• Just because a flowerpot is used and dirty, you don't need to toss it.
• Whether clay, plastic or ceramic, the pot can be superficially cleaned with a strong blast from a garden hose.
• If the pot has white, crusty mineral deposits, scrape them off with an old knife (scraping clay pots will sharpen the knife).
• When the pot is free of dirt and minerals, sterilize it to kill insect eggs and plant diseases.

• 1 part household bleach
• 10 parts water

1. Mix the bleach and water, making enough to fill a tub that is deeper than the largest pot you want to sterilize.

2. Place the cleaned pots in the tub and allow them to soak for 20 minutes.

3. Remove sterilized pots, rinse again with clear water and set them in the sun to dry. They are now ready for new plants.

The compost in this mix contributes disease-fighting microorganisms and nutrients to help mature indoor and patio potted plants thrive.

• 1 part perlite
• 1 part finished compost
• 1 part topsoil

1. Mix all ingredients together and store in a waterproof, sealed container.

2. To modify this mix to suit succulents, cacti and other plants that need sharply drained soil, increase the perlite to two parts, or add one part builder's sand to the original recipe.

3. Before filling a large pot, invert several small plastic pots on the bottom of the larger pot, then fill with soil. The air space beneath the small pots will aid drainage and lighten the overall weight of the pot.