How To Stop Killing Plants - Heels In My Backpack

I’ve never been good at keeping house plants alive. I would see all of these beautiful urban jungles on Instagram and pin photos of airy living rooms with big leafy plants dotted around, but in reality I found it so difficult to replicate. How were all of these people managing to keep plants alive? Why did mine always die? What’s their secret??

Enter 2020. The year we all took up new hobbies and did whatever we could to distract ourselves from the choas of a world on fire.

I had inadvertantly killed two ivy plants, a variant my mum told me I couldn’t possibly kill, and decided that I was going to actually try this time. I was going to research. I was going to figure out what I was doing wrong.

It turns out there was quite a lot I was doing wrong. I just didn’t know how to look after plants, pure and simple.

Since then I have acquired a LOT of house plants and luckily most of them have survived through to 2021. There were a few casulaties I admit, but I’ve learned a lot along the way. And I have now become the resident plant guru amongst my friends and colleagues. Quite the turn around.

Recently a few friends have asked me for advice and I’ve come to the understanding that we all make the same mistakes at first. If you know nothing about plants you think you just chuck a bit of water in every few days and that should be enough, right? Nah, hun.

Well since I’ve been spouting out the same advice to all my pals, I figured I would throw together a post with some simple steps to stop being a plant killer. Is this groundbreaking information? No. But if you just want to keep a few pretty ones alive, read on.

Woman sitting cross legged in a living room, surrounded by plants

How To Stop Being a Plant Killer

1) Take the plastic pot out to water plants and let them drain

My number one tip for new plant parents is to remove the plastic drainage pot from your fancy ceramic pot when you water it. Something I was never told and is the number 1 reason I kept killing plants.

Plants like water, sure, but they don’t like to sit in it. They can get root rot and die just from this one mistake (adios ivy plants) so it’s really important and really simple.

If you just have a few of the green guys you can do this in the sink, if you have a lot more, do it in the shower/bath. Line up the plants that need watering, give them a good cup of water each, then leave them to drain for at least an hour before popping them back in their pots.

It’s so simple but an absolute gamechanger for keeping your green friends happy.

2) Download the Hedira app to remind you to water your plants

The frequency of your watering is also key here. And the thing is, how often you water is down to the kind of plant. The way I learned which plants needed watering at what times was by using an app (typical millennial). There are a few on offer, but I use Hedira. It gives you a reminder to water your plants (as well as when to mist/feed, etc) as well as how to know it needs a drink.

For example some plants like to be watered when it just feels dry on top and some need to dry right through (you poke your finger in the soil to check) before they want a drop of water. As a rule though, don’t go watering plants that feel damp!

3) Get the light just right

It turns out where you put your plants is actually quite important. Again it depends on the type of plant so when I get a new green-leafed pal, I do a quick google and figure out the best place to put it. I mainly buy plants from Bloombox or Patch Plants anyway, and they will tell you what sunlight environment they like on the actual plant page. So I will have figured out where to put it before I press Add To Basket.

But one thing I have realised is that it’s rare for plants to like direct sunlight. Which goes against everything I learned about photosynthesis in GCSE Science, but whatever. They get a bit scorched, you see. In my experience most like bright sunlight but not direct, so a nice North-facing windowsill or a bright bathroom are my key areas.

Also if you want plants that like the shade, have a quick google because they exist! I have a fairly dark house so just bought a ZZ plant for a shady part of my living room (infamous for surviving in the shade).

4) MIST

I didn’t know about misting before. But most plants, particularly tropical ones, like a bit of humidity, which you can replicate with a quick spritz of water.

It sounds like you’re adding a whole other element to plant care, but it’s easy to have a spray bottle onhand, filled with water, to give your plants a mist from time to time. I tend to mist mine when I water them, but the Hedira app will tell you when you need to do this too.

There are fancy misting bottles you can buy like this one (affiliate link), but I have a bog-standard spray for a couple of quid on amazon.

5) Start with easy-going plants

It’s easy to get carried away on your plant parent journey and start ordering rare plants that need a lot of care. I’ve learned from experience that some are just too tricky for beginners. For example there are boujie fellas that only like rainwater or filtered water. Nope, I’m not filtering water for them whilst I drink tap water, so those guys aren’t for me.

Start with easy to maintain plants so you can get to grips with everything. I’ve personally found Devil’s Ivy, Chinese Money Plant and the Trileaf Wonder to be my easiest going plants. Others that are known to be easy are Spider Plants, Cacti, Snake Plant and Aloe Vera.