Frugal air freshener and decoration ~PLANTS!

House plants are something I have enjoyed all of my life. My mom had a lot of them and I believe her mom also enjoyed them. House plants are a pretty addition to a room, giving it a fresh look and softening up hard walls and furniture. Some like Aloe Vera can also be very useful, ready with a fresh juice to put on any burn to speed the healing.

House plants are also pretty frugal decorations. Some of mine I have bought with probably the most expensive being around $10. When I bought my ficus tree I waited for it to go on sale at Home Depot for that amount. Another bunch of my plants I have been given, many of them having been divided from some of their plants. And others I have divided myself and ended up with a lot more. I have also bought plants at Garage sales. I now have nearly 30 houseplants which we enjoy.

Here are some of the benefits of houseplants:

• They clean your air. They can remove 87% of toxins in 24 hours. The recommended amount of plants to have is around 15-18 for a 1,800 sq. feet. They take in the Carbon Dioxide which you exhale and then send out the oxygen that we need.
• They make you feel calmer and happier. It has been noticed in hospitals that healing happens faster when the patients are around plants.
• I also read that plants help you to fight fatigue and colds. In offices they have found workers to be more productive when they have plants around them.

I think that sounds like some great reasons to have house plants. Not only are they not very expensive but you don't have to worry about spending money on air fresheners either. Check out Sixwise.com to see more of the reasons for having houseplants. To learn about how to do it check Gardnersnet.

I also thought I would share with you about one of my favorite plants, my Shamrock. My sister Martha had given me a shamrock quite a few years ago in a cute little white basket, it soon outgrew it's basket and so I had to transplant it. Before long it was ready to be divided, which I did and got quite a number of new plants out of the deal to give away and sell at my garage sale and I still had a nice plant for me. Here is a picture of it ready to be divided again. When it gets to crowded it doesn't bloom as much as normal.

I had been planning on dividing it but hadn't gotten it done and then Aaron knocked it over and broke the pot so that gave my the reason I needed to get the job done.

This is what the roots look like on a Shamrock. Everything is pretty tangled up together and the stems are pretty fragile but I was as gentle as possible (And then kids helping me where as gentle as they knew how) and we got them divided. There was some breaking but that is what happens. We carefully divided the plant into 6 new pots with dirt.
They look pretty spindly at first but after a couple of weeks of watering and sunlight they are doing pretty good. Here are a couple of the pots:

Do you enjoy growing houseplants? What are some of your favorites?

For more Frugal Friday tips visit Crystal at Biblical Womanhood.