My Indoor Garden: Learning How to Not Kill Houseplants

One of my goals for this new house of ours is to incorporate more greenery; deck the halls with flora and foliage, you’d say.

I’ve never had much of a green thumb when it comes to indoor plants. Last summer I started an outdoor container garden that gave way to lettuce and green beans that made their way to our dinner plates.

But indoors? I’ve killed almost every plant I’ve owned. The only one that has survived is my bamboo branch, perched in water. I’ve managed to keep that one alive for a year now, which is nothing short of victory.

With a house of my own though, I am trying to reverse that and I’ve started collecting a few more plants to test the waters.

Because, to me, the natural world is one of the most beautiful decorations you can find. I’m not one for clutter, but cover a sideboard in potted plants and crowd a window-sill full of saucers of vegetation and I’m smitten. It doesn’t hurt that my favorite color is green, either, and hence has taken the spotlight in a lot of my wardrobe and decorating.

Often I’ve even found myself walking past a boutique or a pub and wanted to patron there—simply because the storefronts are filled with leafy cascades and tendrils.

All this to say, I wanted—I needed—this handicap of mine to go away. It’s like loving a pet, but every time you go near, you end up stepping on its paw or tripping and landing on top of it. You don’t mean to, but someone always ends up getting hurt.

So when we first moved into our house, my in-laws brought over some house-warming plants. With their pretty, glossy leaves, I was thrilled and then immediately reminded that this could very well be their deathbed; if history was any measure, they could very well be dead by the end of the month.

I mentioned that and my father-in-law gave me one simple piece of advice for indoor gardening that has revolutionized my ability to keep these fronded friends alive. He told me to pick one day a week to water the plants, rather than go by looking or touching the soil. In the past I’ve always ended up overwatering the plants and drowning them to death, so I loved the simplicity of it.

Monday was the day I picked. And for the past two months, each Monday morning, I’ve watered these new friends of mine with care. And incredibly? No casualties. I can even see new leaves unfurling and stems getting stronger.

I’m still taking it slow, but I’ve since bought two more plants to add to my collection. I couldn’t be happier!

Related Posts
The Process of Turning a House into a Home
Starting a Container Vegetable Garden

{ photo source }