Baby its cold outside !

Its a cold Melbourne winter, foggy crisp mornings filled with rainy grey days and short blissful bursts of sunshine. With the chill outside we are closing up our houses and turning up the heat to escape the cold.

A winter tip for a healthy home is to bring the outdoors in with greenery.....plants will help you keep your indoor air healthy. While the house is all closed up for winter and materials and finishes in the house are heating up (heat encourages off gassing of volatile organic compounds - VOCs ) its a good time to add a few plants to assist in cleaning your indoor air especially when ventilation is minimised.

In our buy it, upgrade it, replace it society good old nature gets another gold star - indoor plants win this weeks gold award for functionality, affordability, beauty and good health ! But don't take my word for it -

" In 1973 during the Skylab III mission, NASA identified 107 volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) that were emitting (offgassing) from synthetic materials inside spacecraft. As a result, NASA realised that indoor air pollution in any tightly sealed structure could present health related problems and should be addressed. In 1989 EPA reported to the U.S congress that they had detected more than 900 VOCs in the air of public buildings." citation from http://www.wolvertonenvironmental.com/air.htm    In further studies conducted by NASA it was found that plants were capable of removing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that had been outgassed.

Wolverton Environmental Services has done some amazing work in establishing which plants assist to remove particular chemicals from indoor air. For further info visit http://www.wolvertonenvironmental.com/airFAQ.htm.

So snuggle up this winter with Janet Craig or English Ivy !
(botanical name Dracaena deremensis and Hendra helix)