Hints From Heloise

Sat., Oct. 5, 1996

King Features Syndicate

Dear Heloise: My best recycling hint is to take any corrugated or mailable box that has printing or writing all over it, open the glued edges and turn it inside out. Seal the edges with strong tape and you have a clean box to use for mailing again. Thanks for your great column. - Marilyn Waitt, Rexford, N.Y.

Three cheers for your recycling hint. Isn’t it great to reuse something a couple of times before discarding it! - Heloise

Dear Heloise: I received a plant as a gift last year for either my desk here at work or as a houseplant.

As it grows, the ivy portion keeps falling off of the pot and creates quite a bare spot in the arrangement.

I felt that a wooden plant stick to keep the ivy up and to also fill in that bare spot would be quite unattractive, so I put a clear plastic straw in the arrangement, wrapped the ivy lightly around it and it looks super with no “stick” showing.

You can push the straw as far down into the soil as you wish or raise it as high as need be, and it is still nearly invisible to anyone looking at the plant. - Nancy Monroe, Basking Ridge, N.J

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