Plant Care

General Plant Care

The In’s & Out’s of Getting Started

You want to start a garden, or add some flowers to your yard or house. You’ve come to the right place. Some tell me I think too much, I just want to know everything I’m getting myself into before I commit. I hate surprises. As you start to plan out what you want to do, or what you’re interested in take the following into consideration.

• Light
• Weather
• Space
• Indoor/outdoor
• Pets
• Cost
• Time

Plan Out Your Space

Light

First things first to plant care is to understand the available habitat. Consider the sun pattens available around the yard, or inside your home. This will impact the type of plants you can grow. There is a range of the amount of light for plants. Some plants like bright areas without direct sunlight, while others like morning light – up to 6 hours worth, and others like all the sun they can get.

Depending on the strength of the sun where you live take these definitions with a grain of salt. The Arizona sun will kill just about anything, so even though it says the plant likes full sun, you still have to be careful. Plants can also grow into being heartier over time. I’ve had to do this with a lot of the succulents that I grow. The plant will almost completely die and then it will grow with a new round of stems and leaves and thrive.

Bright rooms indoors usually consist of rooms that face the sun and aren’t in shadow. The room itself doesn’t need to have sunbeams pouring through, sometimes that helps, and sometimes it hurts. Again, in Arizona the sun can kill a plant in the windowsill if it gets direct sunbeams. I want an herb box around my kitchen sink, but I can’t do it, the sun burns all the moisture out of the soil too quickly. But I have a lily that died in 1 room and came back to life in the other, which was just on the other side of a half wall.

Weather

First and foremost, USDA has a heat map outlining weather patterns and temperatures. The nation is divided into hardiness zones and plants do come with a number on which zones they thrive within. Check out more details here.

Humidity, also takes a toll on plant care. This impacts watering and soil moisture. Other things to consider with soil is pH levels, compactness of soil, and how water drains.

A lot of plants need a pot, or system that allows for water that doesn’t attach to the soil to drain out. When the water isn’t allowed to drain it, the water sits there until it is used. Sometimes you are not able to see how much water is built up in your pot and you can end up drowning your plant, or getting root rot. Both suck.

Space

Just like puppies, plants grow. Consider what you have space for and how you’ll be able to care for your plants long-term.

This includes are you going to use a pot, or put it in the ground? Are you building a collage of plants for a hanging planter, or desk? If you build a collage, or buy one know how large these plants will get. I’ve had collages outgrow their containers, but also overtake each other. Everything looks really cute when it is small.

The rule of thumb in plant care is whatever the distance of the roots, you need to have a deeper hole by half. Depending on what your soil is like there’s a soil layering system you can do as well when putting plants in the ground.

Indoor/Outdoor

There are some plants that are specific to indoor conditions and others that can handle outdoor conditions. Again, this has a lot to do with weather and temperature. Indoor conditions can obviously be controlled a lot more than outdoor conditions and don’t have a huge swing in temperature.

But, even outdoor plants have their limits. Be careful if temperatures get to freezing in your area, the soil or the roots or the plant itself can freeze. This will bring us to annual vs perennial.

Annual plants come and go with the season. Perennial plants have a better shot of making it year round. There may be specific times of the year that you will see it bloom, sometimes they will do this all on their own without any help from you. Just know if you fall in love with a flower, it may not be a long-term thing.

Pets

Many plants (indoor & outdoor) are poisonous to cats & dogs. If you have pets and want to keep them, or avoid spending outrageous vet bills, check that the plants you bring into your space are not poisonous to your pets.

You can get around this sometimes if the pant is higher off the ground and won’t sluff off leaves that can then be consumed by 4 footed friends.

Cost

Gardening and plant care costs some coin. You will need to contain your plants, either through pots, or building garden boxes, or landscaping. Then you will need to cover the cost of your gorgeous plant. You can get some on the cheap side of things, but know the larger you go the more expensive it will get, both on the plant and the containment system.

Seeds or propagating (starting with a cutting off a living plant) can be the cheapest way to get things started. Either way you will need to be diligent in watering and sun light as roots take hold and your plant begins to thrive.

Time

If you have a busy schedule you could lose plant care time. I love this time. I am one of those people who talks to each one, I land on the side of telling them how well they’ve been growing and inspect their leaves for any signs they’re trying to give me. Leaves will tell you a lot about how your plant is faring.

A drip system is a fool proof way of keeping your plants hydrated, but not always an option for potted plants. Get a plant care system that is easy so the task won’t seem too much on days that overcome their boundaries.

On top of watering, you will need to give your plants food. I’m a big fan of Miracle Grow in my watering can. The best thing it does is grow need stems and leaves, you won’t see as much benefit in stems and leaves that are already living. Fertilizer is another option for food/nutrients, as well as composting systems.

Plant Care Articles

“Gardens are a form of autobiography”
~ Sydney Eddison