from the husband: small scale gardening

This is a special series from my husband, Drew! Not long ago, I realized that I would love to post recipes and gardening tips, however, my better half is the real cook in our house, the funny one, and the expert on growing things. I am typically killing our plants and burning our dinners. So, instead of me pretending to know what I'm doing, Drew is going to be creating some posts on recipes and plant life for your reading pleasure. I hope you enjoy!

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Hello and good day to you, blog world!

So it’s me again here to drop some relevant (I must remember relevant) knowledge on you that is hopefully interesting, inspiring, and possibly impactful. In thinking about what I could write about for you dear readers, I thought about a number of different topics. Most of them ended in –ology, were very polarizing, fit an extremely specific niche, or made for bad blogger etiquette. 

After a long time sifting through ideas for you, I decided that today I could write to you about the changing dynamic of women’s spring fashion as it relates to current trends abroad.... or I could write you about small scale gardening. Let’s go with gardening. So, I love plants. I really love plants. I am sure you’re all surprised that a bio graduate would have a fixation on plants, but it is true. I just have to get it off my chest. Plants are really fascinating. Right now, I hope you know I am fighting off significant temptation to dive into a long rant explaining plants and their miraculous abilities etc. . . but I won’t. You’re welcome. 

So what about this are you interested in? My guess is that a lot of you, probably like my wife, have tried to keep a flower, or potted plant, or even plant a small herb garden in a window and been discouraged when it didn't grow as you expected (or in some cases shrivels up and gets crispier than your morning cereal). Whether you are interested in growing a little jade plant, a little kitchen herb garden, or a decorative orchid, hopefully this post will help you in your endeavors. 

First let us cover the basics (and I promise I won’t make this too "science-y"). No matter what plant you have, it is going to need 3 basic things: 

1. Something with nutrients to grow in
2. Water
3. Light

Now.... not every plant will need the same type or amount of any of the 3 essentials but once you get the hang of it you will be surprised how easy it is to tell what your plant needs.

WATER

I know I didn't mention it first, but I think we should talk about water before the others. I have seen more plants die due to improper watering more than anything else combined. Now, there is one habit that belongs to many of my loved ones that no amount of blogging can fix. Under-watering. I grew up watching someone (who shall remain nameless) buy those pretty green sword plants and put them all around the house. They looked great when they were brought home, but three days later they just looked sad. At seven days they looked ill. At 14 days leaves were browning and falling off and at 3 weeks they were thrown out and new ones would take their place. As I would do my chores and take out the dead plants, I couldn't help noticing that the dirt in the pots was bone dry. How is a rain forest plant supposed to deal with this?! Long story short, no water will kill your plants. I guarantee. Water regularly.

So how often should you water? The straight forward answer is “It depends.” I have found the best way to tell if you need to water is to stick your finger down into the dirt and if you can’t feel moist soil, then it is time to water. Be careful not to judge it by the dirt you can see. The top may be dry but an inch down could be soaking wet. Now, when you water, make sure the pot can drain. Slowly add water until a little starts to run out of the bottom. Then you’re done! Make sure your pot can drain. If your plant is sitting in a pool of water and the roots can’t ‘breathe’ they will die and your plant will very soon follow.

LIGHT

Light! As we all learned in elementary school science, light is how plants make their food. Yay photosynthesis! So with that in mind, think about where you put the plants in your house. Jenny loves to put plants where they are cute, and that is wonderful! However, if you put a plant that needs direct sun in a dim corner, don’t expect it to do well. In fact, dim corners can kill plants just like a lack of water. Think about it. Light is how plants make their food, if they have little to no light, then they have no food #sadhungryplant. The best place for a plant indoors is by a large south facing window. FunFact#1 South facing windows get the most light since we are up in the northern hemisphere! If you have a skylight, and can reach it, put your plants near them.

Now what if you don’t have big windows or good light? You can STILL have great plants living happily in your house. You will need to select plants that do well in lower light conditions, but you can make it work especially if it is near a bright lamp all day. One of my favorite plants that can tolerate slightly lower light conditions is the orchid. Check out this one we have had flowering for a month or so! They are a little more difficult than other plants to get them to thrive, but with a little bit of knowledge and experience you can make them very happy indeed. Check out low light plants at your local nursery and there is usually a decent selection.

Orchid in our living room that I (Jenny) killed. It sat on my back porch dead for a year.

Then Drew got a hold of it and this is what happened after 3 weeks.

DIRT

Dirt. Living out here in Georgia, we have this great stuff we call “Georgia red clay.” Now while this stuff might be pretty good for making little pots or figurines, it is terrible for growing in! So if you live down here in Georgia don’t go dig up your yard thinking you’re going to find the best dirt for your plants. Most of the time, it is best to go to a local store and pick up a bag of potting soil. Usually, it is very good at holding water and has all the good stuff in it that you need. 

One tip I would give you is to mix your potting soil with sand. Usually a 3:1 ratio works best for me. For plants that don’t like wet roots (cactus, orchids, aloe, jade, etc.) I will mix it in a 1:1 ratio. This helps the soil from getting overly wet and suffocating the roots. When you are potting your plant, don’t pack the dirt down hard or shove the plant into the dirt. Remember: if you hurt the roots, the plant will not do well! 

Well, readers, you made it. I hope that my brief overview was helpful and gave you the confidence to plant something in your home. Plants clean your air, make a room more peaceful, and can contribute to longer life (not to mention they aren't bad to look at!). Still not convinced? Almost every Home Depot or Lowe's home improvement store carries the plant picture below. Golden Pothos is VERY hard to kill and given even semi-decent conditions will grow like crazy! Need a confidence boost to grow your green thumb? Grow Golden Pothos!

If you are having problems with a plant and you just can’t figure out what to do, ask me! I’m not an expert, but if I don’t know the answer I bet I can point you in the direction of a resource that can.

Happy Planting!

Drew

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I hope you are more confident about growing beautiful plants! I would love to hear your feedback if this helped you in any way.