If during this year at any point you found yourself picking up a couple new hobby’s and one of them involved you in becoming a Plant Mom. Then know your not alone. I’m pretty sure plants became the biggest hobby during 2020. And not just fake ones, almost everyone has ventured into getting real plants and keeping them alive for the first time and not just owning succulent plants.
Some people have even ventured into learning how to propagate their house plants. I cant wait to start with that. I just want to make sure the plants I have are doing their very best before before I start making plant babies from them.
So if your a new plant mom and want to keep your indoor plants alive and thriving but don’t really know exactly what to do when. I’ve curated all the info I’ve done from research on pinterest ( gotta love pinterest for the knowledge it shares!) and created a very simple weekly, monthly and yearly routine to help you keep those plants happy.
Along with a free printable plant care maintenance log that you can find in my free resource library.
So on to the list…
P.s. at the bottom I have a list of the best plants for beginners!
Weekly
These are things you’d like to do weekly to keep your new hobby plants alive and healthy. You can pick a certain day a week to check on them if that helps. I find it easier to kinda check on them all the same day. Just a quick run though and nurture and that need it.
Quick overall check
You want to just check to make sure they are happy and not droopy. And if they are then try to find out why.
If your older leaves are starting to yellow and brown then your watering to much. And if your newer leaves are then your not watering enough. Seriously the best tip I ever learned.
Soil moisture
You’ll want to test your plants moisture so you know how soon you’ll need to water it. You can do this by testing the soil moisture by pushing your finger into it about an inch.
Some plants like to stay wet and some like to dry out completely. Do a little research to see what yours you have prefer.
Remove yellow or browning leaves
If you plant happens to get yellow or browning leaves you’ll want to remove them by punching them off with your nails. Don’t just pull them off. This can damage your plant.
If you leave them on then they will take away energy and water from your leaves that are healthy and striving. You want your plant to be able to focus on growing bigger and fuller by giving all its energy to those leaves that are striving.
Check for pests
If your unaware that there are pests that want to devour your precious house plants well now you know. And if one has them they can easily spread to others. So it’s a good idea to just inspect them weekly to make sure nothing is living and feeding off them.
You’ll notice by little tiny holes in your plant or around the edges. This is where they are eating it.
Monthly
These are the things you’d like to take care of monthly. You don’t want to let them go on for too long in between but you also don’t need to worry about them as often as the weekly things.
Wipe down leaves
Your plants leaves will get dusty just like anything else in your home and your plants do not like this. So once a month go around with a damp wash cloth and just give all your plants a wipe down. Do each leaf individually so you don’t accidentally break any by trying to move through the plant to fast.
You can even take a little bit of coconut oil and wipe of on the leaves a little if you want to help nourish and give them a little bit of shine. They love it!
Spa day… room temperature gently shower
Plants are naturally outdoors. And what happens out doors… it rains. Not everyday in lots of places but there is still the occasional rain and humidity that comes with it.
So once a month if you want to treat your plants to a spa day then just gather them all up and place them in your tub and give them a gentle (you don’t want the water full power or aiming straight at them) and let them hang out in the shower and enjoy a nice indoor rain shower.
Pruning
No one wants to look rough around the edges. So to keep your plants happy you’ll need to give them some pruning. Clip off any yellow or brown leaves. Especially any that were starting to come about the last time you did some pruning.
You also want to prune to help your plant keep the shape your wanting. Fuller vs longer or etc.
Rotate/move
Incase you don’t know. Most plants don’t like to be touched and moved all the time. They like to just hang out and be. But they also don’t like to be stuck in the same spot all the time. They like to be rotated or moved around occasionally.
So try to limit this to once a month and maybe after their spa shower. This lets all their leaves be exposed to different lightings.
Yearly
Now that we got the the weekly and monthly routine plant care down lets talk about the yearly. There’s really only one thing you need to do each year. And you want to kinda keep this around spring time when most plants are ready to bloom and get lovely again.
Repot (in spring)
Each year you will want to repot your plants. move them to bigger ones if their roots have seemed to our grow their current planter. And give them some fresh potting soil. Since you will be repoting them now is also a good time to check for any root rot or bad roots and snip them away.
And if your still new to the plant parenthood like I am here’s a quick and simple list of the best plants for beginners that are hard to kill!
- Air plants
- Spider plant
- Philodendron
- Peace Lily
- Boston Fern
- Jade Plant
- Snake Plant
- String of Pearls
- Golden Pothos
- Aloe
- Fiddle Leaf Fig
- Rubber Plant
- English Ivy
- ZZ Plant
- Chinese Evergreen
- Dracaena
- Monstera
- Elephants Ear
- Prayer Plant
- Devils Ivy
I hope this simple plant care routine and beginner list was able to help you and helped you find ease in the caring of your new hobby.
Until next time, Live a life you love!
Xo Jessica!