This Week In Houseplants

The ONE thing that makes houseplants so much healthier

This may seem a bit click baity so I’m gonna tell you now - you’re not gonna like what that ONE thing is.

But first let’s make a bit of small talk.

I LOVE a nice interior design blog. I subscribe to loads and my favourite time of the day is first thing in the morning - I lie on the sofa, wrapped in a blanket with a cup of coffee, and peruse my Feedly feed on my iPad.

My house does not reflect the hours I’ve spent reading decor blogs. It’s an artex-covered, er, project that has a hole in the kitchen ceiling and no proper carpets upstairs.

I yearn for a practical house. Plant-filled, of course, but no hanging plants, no above-cupboard planters that are impossible to reach without a ladder (and get no light) and no freestanding baths that more or less impossible to dust behind, but have dust-collecting gaps nonetheless.

Every now and again a house will crop up with a plant idea that seems awesome, but there’s NO FREAKING DETAIL.

This article from Desire to Inspire has what looks to be a pretty cool planter that creates a curtain of Rhipsalis over the mezzanine but there’s no close up of the soil situation.

Lack of information aside, I LOVE the use of plants. There’s some really cool and interesting specimes but it doesn’t scream ‘HELLO YES I’VE BOUGHT EVERY PLANT I’VE EVER SEEN BUT THERE’S TOO MANY NOW SO THEY ALL LOOK A BIT NEGLECTED’ like, ahem, some people’s houses.

It looks curated. As opposed to the ‘refuge for sad plants’ look that I seem to be going for.

By the way, if you click through to the link, take a minute to look at the logo at the top. The dot from the i bounces and rolls onto the floor. Every time I see it I think it gets cuter. Real lamp-from-Pixar vibes.

Here is a list of things that I think would make my houseplant journey better:

Yes, it’s a journey. Deal with it.

1. A way of spraying down my plants thoroughly (with, e.g. bug spray) that doesn’t wet the floor.

Hmm.

It would appear there’s only the one thing.

I actually think that’s the one thing that would make houseplant care SO MUCH EASIER. I’d be more inclined to clean my plants.

Photo by Huy Phan on Unsplash

Perhapsi can fashion some kind of plant poncho? Is this how I make my millions?

Here’s the one thing that makes houseplant care EASY

Drumroll please:

Having more time to care for your plants.

Devastating isn’t it?

Like when you find out that the best way to live a long and healthy life is… to be rich.

The more time you spend with your plants, the more likely you are to notice things like pests. When I was caring for my plants every day (ish), I’d pick off the odd thrips there, the odd dying leaf here.

It wasn’t until about a month ago that I realised that that was why my plants were so good last year, and decidedly average this year.

There’s nothing I can really do about it.

Ok I could make more time for my plants, but I know me. I’m not gonna.

I have a full time job, a website to run, a house to clean, and exams to study for. I also like to spend a good amount of time sitting on the sofa. There’s no room for plants.

No one suggest that I sacrifice my iPad/coffee/sofa time. It’s my favourite time of the day - you couldn’t winkle me off the sofa from 6:30-7:30am with a sharp stick.

The positive thing about plants doing…not so well over the last year

My plants grew SO WELL when I was devoting hours a week to them.

So well.

A bit…too well.

I was rapidly running out of room.

Now they all have thrips so I’m cutting them right back. The roots are great (except for my M. Dubia - RIP) so they’ll come back really well next year. Maybe next year will be less hectic and I can get back into it *fingers crossed*.

Have an awesome weekend

I will be sitting on the sofa, and thinking about (but, crucially, not) watering my plants.