A long, emotional post about my current plant journey & life I suffered a really painful breakup & betrayal in April of this year. I decided & arranged to move out of our shared apartment in a single night. I moved into my aunt’s basement, which has a living room, bathroom, & bedroom. For context, I’m 24. When I moved, I had some seedlings in peat pellets & a few planters prepared for the season. I had grown tomatoes and herbs in the past, nothing more. When I arrived at my aunt’s, her work was having a flower fundraiser. She loves flowers but has limited mobility; she told me if I maintained the plants, she would pay for $200 worth of flowers. I researched the flowers offered that were the most beloved by my local pollinators, & suddenly I was responsible for ~30 plants. I could definitely do it. My mom and grandma are both devoted gardeners, indoor & outdoor. I put my headphones on, enjoyed some Mary Jane, listened to an audiobook & worked outside. Somehow I had ran into a hobby that required planning, mental & physical energy, daily commitment, & was fulfilling for those around me. Building the garden was a huge task that allowed me to redirect the care & intention I had given my relationship. It was a way of settling in to my new environment that met all of my needs. In the bedroom downstairs, 2 of the walls have large, 8x3ft windows, & a ~10 inch ledge just beneath them, along the entire wall. I began to imagine trailing plants hanging down & around the ledges in my bedroom. I knew nothing about houseplants. My aunt had some I tried to save, but I killed her peace lily immediately. I bought my first few on marketplace without knowing what to do— a fiddle leaf, split leaf philodendron, golden pothos, spider plant, etc. You all know how this goes. Indoor plants are a different beast! & I had ~15 feet of east & south facing windowsills in my bedroom. They began to multiply, I bought more and more. I began propagating. Instagram had caught on & I was learning about homemade moss poles & chunky soil. Once I made the chunky soil, every plant needed a repot! I became (and still am) obsessed with repotting. I picked up every trick I could— pest control mixtures, treating root rot, using stakes for support, bottom planting, filtered water, humidity. Caring for my houseplants became one of the reasons I wanted to get out of bed every day. Giving plants as gifts, plant swaps, trading with my relatives, taking cuttings from plants in public. Now, everything smells like neem oil. I am constantly buying soil, orchid bark, coco chips, & perlite. I just made my first moss pole! I have begun selling plants. I have 45 according to Planta, but an entire windowsill is devoted to propagates. The cellar has my crotons, straining under a grow light. I have to touch the plants I see in restaurants, bars, and boutiques. I watch repotting ASMR on Instagram & check marketplace daily. I am also grappling with the fact that winter is almost here, and the plants may begin to struggle. I shouldn’t buy more for a while because they won’t thrive for a while, right? Well I just bought 4 more plants today, and it’s November 1st. Wish me luck. I can’t really wrap my head around how crucial this journey has been to recovering from my breakup. I do know, however, that this brings me so much joy. Planta has been ESSENTIAL to this process— I don’t have half the worries other plant parents do since I got a moisture meter & Planta tells me what to do & when. The Planta community has been fun to participate in & I plan to remain here. I just needed to get that out. I never thought this would become such a big part of my life, but I’m really enjoying it now it’s here. If you read this far, may your new leaves always be larger than their predecessors. May thrips & spider mites tremble before you, & your roots always be white. Thank you for being here.
