Stick them in the shower & turn it on --- cold water only please. You are absolutely right Shelly! Good tip.

I tell people this all the time, but they often tell me it's too much work or too strange. From cleaning off dust to deterring mites to leaching the soil, showers can be very therapeutic.

My stepson had a large rubber tree. He would put it in a gentle, temperate shower on a monthly basis.

His sisters laughed at him because he would simulate a rainstorm by flashing the light switch on and off for the lightening and made sounds like crashing thunder. lol

He said it replicated jungle conditions where the tree would have lived. He swore it worked and that was one beautiful plant.

Maybe... ???

That's great!!! Love the flashing lights.

I sometimes do the same thing when we get a good summer rain - the neighbors already know I'm nuts, lol...

Mine like a shower too- they would probably like one more often.

Interesting, Pod... flashing lights, I don't doubt it works! !

When I grew roses indoors, this was a necessary to keep the spider mites at bay. I'd do it in the kitchen sink with the sink sprayer so I could get under the leaves.

You-all probably already know this, but I learned through experience while trying to bottom-water in a bathtub:

Too much soil and potting mix washed down the bathtub drain MIGHT clog your pipes and require a plumber to visit.

Shower the plant, not the soil. Maybe cover the soil and/or your drain with window screening and/or some cloth, to catch run-off soil.

Corey

Good point, Corey! I've done that before with the wood chunks running off the top of the pot....

Rick!

If only it were a joke! First I tried to dissolve it with Drano, but soil, and potting mix don't dissolve.

Now the only bottom-watering I do is keeping cotton flannel on the bottoms of my trays, so that pouring a little water into the tray makes it available to every pot or cell in the tray.

Draino also does not work if a mouse decides to use the pipeline from the basement to the upstairs sink cabinet by tossing insulation into the lower sink.
(That wouldn't be a gardening tip though would it?)

Speaking of mice, I saw one indoors just an hour ago. I guess they like staying warm, too.

Where's my lazy cat! He'd better protect all the seeds in cardboard boxes!

Oh, don't worry. If your mouse is like ours, he will head directly for the food dish. Your seeds should be safe.

Thanks for that reassurance!

Lazy though Toby-cat may be, he won't allow any rodents to get away with eating HIS food, and that he WILL notice!

As I do, Inky merely 'observes' our mouse. It's a kick!

Lemme know if you need someone to come play with your mouse (mice?) - my cats enjoy playing field hockey with the poor rodents...

Boy! I'd LOVE to get rid on him but there's just no way so he has become our bonafide house mouse.

No, I didn't say they'd actually kill it.... that would mess up their whiskers....

hummm...well I guess he's here to stay.

JR there are these little black disk looking things now that you can use. You don't have to see them or pick them up or anything. You just set this thing sort of hockey puck looking down & it's baited I think with peanut butter & they crawl in it & that sets off a spring which closes the exit & I think kills them at the same time. Anyway, then you throw it away. I've seen them sold in the grocery store. I have a friend who uses them.