Learn how to help your house plants thrive.

It's frustrating to bring home a lush green and beautiful house plant from the garden center, only to watch it whither and look bedraggled a short

time later. I can help.

First, consider your potting soil. Most people water their plants with tap water and in a short time the hard water raises the alkalinity in the soil.

When the PH of soil gets too high, plants lose their ability to take up nutrients. In other words, you can fertilize the plant all you want and it won't do a bit of good. So, here's how to acidify your house plant soil naturally.

Add a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar to a gallon of water and water house plants with that solution.

Now that your soil is ready, here's a great organic fertilizer to feed your plants:

Loren's Organic House Plant Food

1 part cotton seed meal
1 part bone meal
1 part wood ash or kelp meal

This mixture will give you a NPK value of approximately 5-6-5. Since wood ash is free, you may be tempted to add more than 1 part, DON'T!, wood ash is very alkaline and should be used as directed. Cotton seed meal is acidifying and will help keep the ph near neutral.