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Let me just tell you that I am no expert gardener or botanist. But I do love me some indoor greenery – faux and fresh! While faux foliage is affordable and low maintenance, sometimes it just doesn’t have the same luscious look as the real stuff. Sometimes, the green tones are too dark or too light or the texture of the leaves is too synthetic, and to me thats a problem.
I also love how different indoor plants have different air purification qualities. Yes! different plants take out different chemicals from the air, making them natural air filterers – which is such a bonus for me with my 10 gazillion allergies. So, here is my first ever blog series, Turning your Black Thumb Green, where over the next 4 weeks, I will share with you some tips and tricks I have learnt from a combination of experience (and killing many many many many plants) and expert gardeners (aka my mom and father in law).
If you want to turn your black thumb green or even semi-green, keep on reading!
So first of all, we have to choose plants to bring home. This is the hardest step if you ask me. Before you pick up a beautiful plant that you have seen in everyones homes on Instagram, the first and foremost step is to figure out the light situation in your house. I cannot stress how important this is and how many plants I have killed prior to really thinking through where the plant would live and how it will survive. After all, they are living things and this is an important step in giving them the respect they deserve.
To do this:
Scope out your house and watch where the light comes in.
Our house is east facing – but on the main level, we have no east facing windows. Rather, we have our front doors, through which the morning – midday light filters in making it rather bright. In the afternoon, the back of the house gets tons of direct and indirect sunlight.
Both of these different light situations are perfect for different kinds of plants – ones that need a bright space but not direct sunlight (such as fiddle leafs) and ones that need direct sunlight (like indoor palm leaf plants).
This is so key, as we often forget that for plants, light is a key component of survival. If you do this step right, you will immediately we able to narrow down where to place which plant – which can save you so much heartache when a plant dies.
Choose a spot in your choice of well-lit areas where the plant will live
Next up, I want you to choose a corner or spot where you want to put your newly curated greenery. I want you think hard about this as some plants do NOT like being moved – they are home bodies, and once they have their home and start thriving in it, even a small move can be detrimental to their health. Yes, I talk about plants like a human and even name them (keep reading hehe). Also make sure this is not close to any vents for AC/heating as this will cause your plant’s soil to dry out and lead to over and under watering.
Choose your plant
Do your research and choose your plant! Don’t buy it yet – but really spend some time reading more about what type of plant you would like and what is required to maintain it. Some of my favourite options include a fiddle leaf fig, an aloe plant, a palm leaf plant and even succulents!
So hurry on over and find the plant that you want in your home and stay tuned for the next part in the series for what is coming next week 🙂
xoxo
Areeba
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