Taking Care Of Indoor Plants With Irene

You Can Learn The Skills For Taking Care Of Indoor Plants

The Water Balance

When I started with house plants, I killed more than I would like to admit, mostly because I lovingly overwatered them. Getting the watering right for your indoor house plants can be tricky. My best tip for every beginning indoor gardener is to invest in a soil moisture meter. They’re not expensive and they really do take the guesswork out of watering your plants, which is probably one of the trickiest things to learn when taking care of indoor plants.

It’s also important to have well-draining soil, and to ensure that your plants roots aren’t sitting in water. Double pots or saucers are great to allow excess water to be removed.

The Light Balance

Positioning your plants so they are receiving the right amount of light is equally as important as watering. Too much light and indoor plant leaves may be burnt, too little light and they won’t be able to adequately photosynthesise in order to produce healthy growth. Think about where the plant would naturally grow and try to place it in a similar situation in your home. It is quite surprising how dramatically the light drops when you move away from windows, and how different the light can be between north-facing or south-facing windows. All these factors need to be taken into consideration and you may find grow lights to be helpful for those darker corners where you would love a plant to brighten things up.

Get To Know Your Plants

All plants are different in how much water they require and there are many factors that affect each individual plant. The amount of water a plant requires will depend on:

• the plant’s water requirements
• the size of the pot
• the type of pot
• the type of soil
• the number of leaves
• the air temperature
• the amount of light it receives
• and the list goes on.

It really is important to get to know your plants individually, observe them and feel the soil. And remember, it is ok to lose a few plants along the way.  Be sure to learn something from the loss and keep going. This was my journey.

Eventually, when I matched the right plant to the right spot and gave it the right care, I felt such a sense of achievement. It really was worth persisting! I had grown and nurtured my own beautiful house plants, and once you have done it once, you can do it again and again. There are so many beautiful and intriguing house plants available, and there’s always room for one more!

If there’s a bit of light in my home, then there’s room for a plant.  At one point during COVID my daughters and I were getting quite carried away propogating differen Pothos varieties.  We had over 80 plants around the house.  Since then we have sold some, we’ve given some away, some have been combined into one pot and some are just trailing beautifully from a shelf in the bedroom.

Over the years I have learnt to enjoy my plants.  They put a smile on my face. I love my outdoor plants as well, but the indoor ones can be trickier to grow really well, which is why this website exists.  To help other plant lovers enjoy their plants, have fun caring for them and learning about them, and sharing that joy with others.

The Help You Need Is Here

This site is dedicated to providing inspiring indoor gardening ideas and helpful advice to get you started with the right plants and the right products for taking care of indoor plants. I want your adventures to be more successful than my early days and I even have recommendations for nearly indestructible house plants!

You’ll find tips for indoor gardening for beginners and some suggestions for indoor gardening that you may not have thought about. Have a look around, see what you can find.  Hopefully, you’ll be inspired to try a new plant – you can do it!  Or if you’re more experienced, step into something new, maybe try hydroculture or terrariums! Taking care of indoor plants is good for the soul, find a plant you love today.

My Indoor Plant Gallery

Just a few of my favourite house plants that have taught me about taking care of indoor plants.  These are some of my favorites, and if you look closely, you’ll notice they’re not perfect… there’s the odd brown leaf tip or leaf tear.  That’s OK for me, I’m not a professional gardener and my houseplants are for me to enjoy, and I do, despite their imperfections.  I guess if you want perfect plants, you could go artificial? But to me, that wouldn’t be nearly as much fun – I love watching new leaves unfold.  Hope you enjoy taking care of your indoor plants too!