Transcripts
1. Introduction: I really don't known if there is a way to truly capture the beautiful lushness of walking into a green space. It just feels good. It feels good to the body, it feels good to the mind, it feels good to the spirit. Hello, my name is Christopher, also known as plant queen. I use he, she, and they pronouns and I am the plant parent to over 150 plants. Today's class is about using plants as a tool to not only green up your space but to also uplift your life. I'm going to take you step by step through how to assess your space, how two do research on your plants, and ultimately, how to set up a routine that is going to be enjoyable and fun for you, that is also going to allow your green girls to thrive. If you have never had a plant, this class is for you. If you have plants, this class is for you, because we all have something to learn. There is such a calmness, and a level of creativity that plants have really bought into my life. I hope that you can found that too. I hope that you can find that spark of creativity, and learn more about yourself throughout this entire journey. Darlings, I am excited you have joined the class. Let's get started.
2. The Positive Power of Plants: Welcome darling. I'm so excited that you decided to join me on a little botanical virtual journey. I'm deeply excited because I started this journey all because of my grandmother. My grandmother were the original plant queen in my life. She was the person who nurtured the nature in me. We would go on trip to nurseries when I was younger and she shared her love of plant and her love of gardening with me as a very young child. A lot of what I do today and what I hope to share really stems from her and her teaching then her love and her joy and I want to share that with you today. I got my very first plant about four years ago. I skipped one over to a local hardware store and I welcomed a marble queen patho into my plant farm. She is the longest standing green girl in my plant farm. I made a deal with myself that if she grew and she thrive then I would dive deeper into this plant journey. Darling, she grew, she thrived and 150 plants later we stand hear today. As I dived into the world of plants I really dived into myself and how to better care of myself. The thing love, care and attention that I put into my plant I want to make sure that I'm putting that into my own body. They are the level of self-care, self-love that is inspired through my plant journey. One of the wonderful things about plants is that you can match them to your schedule. I do not believe in the green thumb. I think that people simply have to match the plant need to their own behavior, their own amount of time. There are ways to green up your space and make it fit your life and your schedule. In today's class we are going to go through some very easy and useful tips on how to green up your space. Number one, we are going to talk about what does assessing your space look like? Number two, we are going to talk about doing research on the plant that you're bringing into your space. Number three, we're going to talk about what do you do with that green girl when you bring her home? Then number 4 we are going to talk about patients and just enjoying the process of being a plant parent. You may be nervous and I'm asking you to release yourself from that fear. You want to leaded with a sense of curiosity. You want to live with a sense of joy and fine as you green up your space and so we do not want this to be a stressful or anxious process, so I encourage you to just follow these steps and it'll make things so much easier. To follow along you may want to grab your notebook. You may want to grab that laptop to take some notes. You may want to bring your green girl over to keep you sum company. Darling, you may even want to take a little selfie with your green girl and post it in the project gallery. Let's dive into that first important step, assessing your space.
3. Assessing Your Space: This step is all about assessing your space. The reason that this is really important is because we all live in micro-environment, and we want to make sure that you know the key environmental factor of your space, so that you can match your space to the needs of the plant. One of the fun things that I enjoy doing before I green up any space, is sitting and watching the sunlight move throughout the space. It is so peaceful, it is so calming and allows you an opportunity to sit still and appreciate the artistry that the sun can bring into your space. I encourage you to sit, watch the space, and figure out what particular spot in your space you want to green up. Some of the things that you want to be mindful of, and some of the things that you want to take note of when you're thinking about greening up your space, is the amount of sunlight that is coming into your space. You also want to measure the average temperature, or the average humidity level and there are fun little tools that you can utilize to help you with that. We have the hydrometer, which is this cute little tool that measures the temperature in the space, and the humidity level. The other fun little tool that I just got is a light meter, and this fun little tool allows you to measure the amount of light that comes into your space. It is perfectly fine to use your eyes and use your best judgment. If you want to dive into it a little more, you may want to get yourself a little light meter is fun, it's just something that can aid you and help you in this journey. What does this all look like in action? Imagine that this wonderful corner over here did not have any plant and I was hoping to green it out. Where would I start? The first thing I would take note of is this wonderful window that we have right here. I would want to known what direction the window is facing, and that tells me a little bit about the amount of light that this space may get. I have my compass app open, and this is a south facing window. That means that this window is going to get a lot of bright ambient light, not a lot of direct light, maybe a speckle sparkle of direct like every now and then. I have an idea of the lighting situation, and that helps me to know some of the plants that may be able to thrive in this particular area. The light meter gives me a more specific idea of the amount of light that a particular spot has. It's a cloudy day today. I probably won't get the most accurate reading in terms of the light that's coming into the space, but we're going to try it out anyway. Light is measured in a measurement called Lux, and as I go closer to the window the amount of Lux increases. I tend to put my cacti and succulent, which are green girls that really enjoy a lot of light, closer to the window because that's the optimal theme and environment for those queen. While I have more of my tropical plants a little bit away from the window. These are queens that do not like bright direct light, it actually burns their leaves. Plants can experience sunburn, and we don't want that to happen. By measuring the amount of light, you're ensuring that you're green girl will not experience sunburn and that you're really matching her to the theme that she wants to be in. The next thing that I want to do is also just measure the humidity levels and the temperatures. It says right hear that it is 76 degrees Fahrenheit and the humidity is about 46. That is literally perfect for any standard house plant. If you're looking to get a fun, you want to make sure that humidity is a lot higher. Tropical plants, which are most of the plants write here, are plants that can survive in about 46-50 percent humidity, and the 70 is the perfect temperature when it comes to plants. If you have never measured any of these things, or taken note of any of these things before that is okay. You will continue to learn and you will continue to grow. It takes time to learn, be patient with yourself, you got this, it is okay. All plants need some amount of light in order to grow, in order to survive. Even when plants are labeled as low-light plants, they still need some exposure to sun. If you do have a space that has no windows, I would encourage you to look into artificial lighting. Artificial lighting is basically lighting that mimic the sun rays that plants utilize to feed themselves. You may have a basement that you're hoping to green up. You may have a bathroom with no window that you're hoping to green up. Look into artificial lighting as a potential option because that green girl is going to need some light. Darlings, all right, you have looked at the sun move through your space. You may have an idea of the average temperature and the average humidity level in the space that you're looking to green up. Now, we're going to focus on the fun part, the green girl. All right, we're going to do some research, we are going to figure out what theme that queen wants to be in and whether it matches your space.
4. Finding Your Perfect Plant: Now we have a better idea of the environmental factors of the space that we want to green up, and now we're going to focus on the most fun and amazing aspect of this plant journey, The Green Girl. I remember when I had just started out on this journey and how I would gravitate towards any plant that caught my eyes. I didn't do any research on the plant, I didn't know the names of some of the plants, I didn't know any of their care needs and I brought them into my space and they did not survive. So major plant parent fails, it happens, it's a part of being a plant parent. I learned from that experience and I did better. Now it is really, really important for you to do research on the plant that you want to bring into your space. I am a big fan of just stepping into a nursery and simply googling the plant that I find or googling the plant that I'm gravitating towards, just to do a preliminary check on whether I know that I can care for that Green Girl. There may come a point where you are in front of a plant and you do not know the name of the plant. That is okay. Plants have these long beautiful Latin names that actually reminds me of drag queen names, but that's a whole other story. What I typically do, is that I have my trusty iPhone right by my sighed. Say I was walking into a nursery and I spotted this queen. I'm looking at her and I'm like, she's perfect, absolutely gorgeous but I don't known the name of this particular plant. I would try and check and see if there is a sticker on her pot that will give me her Latin name but if there's no sticker on the pot, then I'm looking at the leaves to see if I can describe the leaves. What I would do, I would look at the leaves and I'm like, they're shaped like heart. I would type in heart shaped leaf plant, bam, it's that simple, and then I'm looking and I'm like okay, this plant, it doesn't look like that one, let's get some more option and I'm like, I've spotted her. This queen's name is actually the Heartleaf philodendron. Now you're going to be flooded with a lot information and that is okay. There will be several links telling you that they're offering the best plant care tip for a particular plant. What I would encourage you to do is to just click a couple of the links. So I typically will click the first one, I'll peruse, I'll look through and what you're really looking for is the character. You're looking for information about the amount of light, that this plant like. You're looking at the amount of the watering situation with this particular plant. You're looking at the humidity levels that this plant enjoy and you're also thinking about what natural habitat did this plant come from so that you can try to mimic that in your home so that this queen can thrive. Those are typically the things that I'm looking at and what I'll do is that I'll read the lighting condition, the water condition, and the humidity condition on several different sites and I'll conjure up my own plant care recipe. I really use these as guidelines, I don't use them as hard core rule because only you know your environment. Now, all you're doing is just matching what the plant enjoys to what your space can provide. I'm also a big fan of having conversations with the plant shop owners and the folks that work at the plant shop. They are a wealth of knowledge and I also rely on my plant friends, so there is a beautiful, rich, botanically brilliant plant community and we share information with each other. I encourage you to talk to your friend about your plant. Nine times out of 10, they have a plant that they love or they have a plant that they're struggling with and you all can share that experience together. Step into your local nursery, peruse around, checkout and see which Green Girls catch your eye and do research on them. That is what this step is all about. It should be a fun process. You should be enjoying yourself. You should be letting your body enjoy that lushness. Go out, do that research and match the plant care tips to your space.
5. Plant Pep Talk: Best Beginner Plants: [MUSIC] While you are engaging in this research, obviously the best plant for you it's the one that fits your space, that fits the amount of time you can dedicate to that particular plant. But darling I'm going to share with you my top three beginner plant. Are you ready? Here we go. We have plant number 1 on my top three beginner plan for any plant parent, it is the snake plant also known in it's Latin name Dracaena trifasciata. This queen is one of my favorite queen because she's so hardy, she is so resilient, and she bounces back from those plant parent mistakes that we often make in the beginning of this journey. You do not have to water this queen often. She is the queen that is desert resistance. She's used to existing and natural habitat that are arid and dry. She's really good at retaining water through her leaves and through her roots. You do want to make sure that you do not over water this queen. In terms of sunlight, you want to make sure that you give this queen bright indirect light, even though she will survive, and low-light, and high light situation. I always found it best to go somewhere in the middle. Too much high light, too much bright light, too much bright direct light can burn her leave, and then to much low light will not allow her enough light to really grow and thrive. Then we have queen number 2, one of my fave, all my green growth are my fave. This is the ZZ plant. I cannot pronounce her Latin name, I'm not even going to try, there. It's beautiful. Look it up. But this is another queen that is extremely resilient, hardy, and easy to care for. One of the things about this queen is that she has little bulbs and her root called rhizomes. Rhizomes are the part of her root that store water. You do not have to water this queen often, like the snake plant, the ZZ plant you can probably water every 10 days in the summer and every three weeks in the winter, you want to make sure that you do not over water this queen, because it leads to root rot. Root rot basically happened when the plant is sitting in wet soil or soggy soil. It basically kills the roots and that basically kills the plant. You just want to make sure that her soil is dry in between watering, and a very simple task when it comes to making sure if your plants need water or not, is to take your finger, and to stick it in two inches into the soil. If the soil feels dry, then she probably needs some water. If the soil sticks to your hand and fills wet, leave her alone and let that soil dry out. Then darling, I had two save the best for last. We have the potho. Now, this is a golden potho. Those one of the wonderful thing about this queen, just like her snake plant, and ZZ plant sisters, is that she is extremely resilient, easy to care for, and she grows so quickly with the ZZ plant and with this snake plant, they grow pretty slowly. If you are a person that loves the immediate satisfaction of new group, then this is your queen. As you can see, she's already growing sum little vine that's absolutely amazing. One of the fun things about the pothos that they are extremely easy to propagate. What is propagation? Propagation is basically when you take the mother plant. You take one of his vines, and you make a cutting. You root that cutting, whether it's in soil or water The node of the plant will grow into a root system, and then eventually you can pot that queen and a pot and bam, you have a whole new plant and you can share that with friends, you can share that with loved one. It's also a wonderful way to continue to green up your space if you're on a budget. If you don't want to buy any new plant, all you have to do is just start with one, and the possibilities of greening up your space is endless. For the pothos plant in terms of sunlight, they can really survive in a bunch of different lighting conditions. You may find pothos plant in offices, You may find them in random store. The reason that a lot of stores, and spaces have this plant is because they're so resilient, and can survive in multiple lighting situation. I would encourage for if you want this queen to thrive in the best way possible, to really put her in bright indirect light. You don't want her to be getting direct sun rays. You want her to be getting bright ambient light, and that is the best theme for this queen. Hey Darling. Let's put miss golden pothos to the side, and let's seen what this looks like in action. Darlings, we have talked about assessing your space, that you want to green up. You've done research on the plant that you want to bring into your space, matching your space, and the plant care tips. Now, we have the green girl, and we are welcoming her and to our home. We're going to focus on what can you actually do in your space, once you bring that queen home to make sure that she grow and thrive.
6. Bringing Your Plant Home: Now you have your plant and it is time to welcome her into your space. I remember when I would bring plants home at the beginning of my plant parent journey and how I had such a close eye on them. I was watching their every move, waiting for them to lose a leaf because I was so stressed in ancient, we're not about that. We're not going to be doing that. Let your queen just get adjusted, if she lose a leaf that's okay. I remember I would be constantly changing the position of where I placed the plant, trying to make sure that I had her in the right spot and make sure that she was getting the right amount of sunlight. At the end of the day, that would be worst possible decision that I could have done, I should have left that queen where she was. When you continue to move your plant all over the space, then she can never get adjusted and we want her to get adjusted to one spot, keep her there, let her sit still, let her get adjusted. You have already decided what spot you want to place that plant in. Obviously that number one is making sure that, that part is nice and clear and ready to receive that green girl. But the second most important aspect is you want to make sure that you are putting that queen into a smaller home, a pot that she's going to thrive in. We have the Pilea Peperomioides, one of my favorite queens. I just welcomed this queen into my home not too long ago, which is why she's still in her nursery pot. When plants are in nursery, they often come jam-packed in these pots for distribution and for resell. What you want to make sure you do is get a new pot that's two inches larger than the nursery pot, so that this queen has room to grow. I have this nursery pot right here, and we have the Terra-cotta pot right here, and as you can see, there is space for this queen to grow. There's about two inches of space, and this is just going to allow her roots to spread out, grow, and breathe. One of the thing that I really, really enjoy about the Terra-cotta pot is that it is one: inexpensive, she's a queen on a budget. But then also two, the pot is very porous and allows the soil to breathe. As a person who tend to over water her plant, I tend to gravitate toward Terra-cotta pot because I known there is a less likely chance that over watering is going to occur, which would leaded to root rot, which would mean that that green girl would be leaving me. Terra-cotta pots are my go-to, but Terra-cotta pots may not be the pots for you. There are some pot fresco ceramic. Another important aspect that I enjoy about the Terra-cotta pot is, the drainage hole. This little drainage hole write here is very, very crucial because that allows the water to run through the pot and not fit at the bottom of the pot. Now, if you are a person who is afraid that you're going to under water, your plants, then you may want to get a pot that does not have a drainage hole. This pot right hear does not have a drainage hole, and which you want to make sure you do when you purchase a pot that does not have a drainage hole, is to make sure you get lava rocks or [inaudible] rocks to ensure that you can place those rocks at the bottom of the pot and it fits the roots above the water, you never want your plant root sitting in water because that leads to root rot. There are options that you can entertain as it relates to the various different pots, but you really want to match your own behavior to the potential pot. Plants are not furniture, they are living breathing creatures, and you just want to make sure that you're doing what's best for that green girl. Whenever you are taking a plant and moving it around, you are causing stress to the plant because the environmental factors are changing around the plant. When you bring that queen home, you may want to wait about a week or two before you re-pot the plant so that you give her time to adjust. She's going to have to adjust to the new humidity level, the new temperatures, the amount of sunlight that she's getting, and then to also re-pot her could be a lot of stress on the plant. What I typically do is that I'll let this queen sit for a little bit, I see if there's some new growth, which is an indication that she's beginning to adapt to the environment that I placed her in, and once I see that, then I feel much better about re-potting the plant. There are situations where I will leave a plant in a nursery pot, and I typically do that with ferns, I have a very complicated relationship with ferns. I adore them, I think they are beautiful, but they are hard for me to take care of, and I know that about myself and I've accepted that and that is okay. Something about ferns that make them difficult for me to care for is that they require a lot of attention and they enjoy their soil being moist but not foggy. But I've kept the ferns in their nursery pot because the plastic contain and retain the moisture. If I were to place that fern in a Terra-cotta pot, the soil would dry out a lot quicker, which means that I would have to be paying much more attention to her, and that time that I don't have. Just take the time to asses, pay attention to the green girl. If you find that the plant is growing and thriving in her nursery pot, then just leave her there. Typically what I do is that I'll look at and see if there's any new growth. If there is a plant that I have been keeping an eye on and she hasn't grown in a very long time and she's still in her nursery pot, then for me that is the sign that she may need them more room to grow. Now, we're going to talk about one of my favorite aspect of being a plant parent, and that is the listening to your plant and engaging in patient and enjoying the process of being a plant parent.
7. Listening to Your Plant: Now we are getting into one of my favorite aspects of being a plant parent. That is just enjoying the luscious greenery that your green girl is bringing into your home and practicing patient. When you bring a new green girl home, they may experience some stress because you are changing the environmental factors around them. They may lose a leaf and that is okay. Keep the queen in one spot and let her get adjusted to her new home. Typically, I will wait about 3- 4 weeks before I make a decision on whether I need to move that particular plant. If the plant is losing leaves really, really quickly after three weeks or has not grown and it's not showing any signs of new growth, I would encourage you to, again, do some more research on that plant and see what the conditions are. Just to remind yourself some of the things that can typically go wrong when you bring a new plant into your home or you're a beginner plant parent, is that you may not be providing that plant with enough sunlight. I've had multiple queen in my plant farm where I put them in low light condition because it says they can survive in low light condition, surviving is not thriving. I try to make sure that I provide my queens with a lot of bright ambient light, not too much direct light, if not low-light, is the perfect middle ground for a plant. I'm also making sure that I'm not over watering the queens. New plant parents either typically over waters or the underwater. A plant has more likelihood of surviving if you underwater the plant versus over watering the plant. In this case, less is more. Set up a schedule for yourself. Water your queen about every week and make sure you do that finger tests. You want to make sure that you're testing the soil to ensure that she is ready for a drink of water. Let's say that this heart leaf filler dendrogram was experiencing a lot of yellow leaves. Let's just say, her foliage had begun to decrease and she was looking a little bear. The first thing that I would do is to inspect the leaves and make sure that there are no path on the leaf. Really just looking and seeing if there is any residue, bite marks, little path along the leaves because infestations can impact the health of the plant. That's also something that you want to make sure you do before you welcome a green grow into your home. You want to make sure you inspect those leaves. Then I would most likely take this queen out of her pot and would be looking at her roots. In this case, this is the cement planter and it did not have a drainage hole. She's taken a little bit of a risk without that drainage whole. But I do have lava rock at the bottom of this planter two ensure that she's not sitting in water for long periods of time. Very, very crucial for any planter that does not have a drainage hole. What I would most likely do is take the queen out of her pot just to see if she's experiencing root rot, or maybe the roots are root bound. Root rot is basically when the roots of the plant turn to mush and they're no longer functioning. There'll be black, there'll be mushy. The root are not feeding the plant, which causes the leaves to fall off. The second thing I'll be checking for is to seen if the roots are root bound. When roots are root bound, they are wrapping around themselves and basically suffocating themselves to the point where they can no longer function. If that is the case, and you take just queen out of the pot and I see that the root are just wrapping around and doesn't have any space to grow, then she may need a bigger pot. The third thing would be if there is no root wrap, let's say the roots are not root bound and they have ton of room to grow, she may need new soil. Reporting is not only changing the pot, is also changing the soil. Sometimes plants just need a fresh batch of soil with new nutrient. I actually make my own soil mixture recipe. Typically, I use will use either black gold or fox farm soil or good dirt. Those are sum of my favorite brand. I will mix that soil and with fir bark and pearlite. You can find these things at your local hardware store. You can found fir bark at pet shops because this often what both put at the bottom of a reptile cages. The reasons that I enjoy using those two natural substances is that they allow the soil to be well drained and well airy, there the less likely chance of the plant being overwatered. Aeration of the soil is very, very crucial and very key because you want to make sure that there's airflow through the root. Think about when we have plants in there natural habitat, what is in the soil? What is moving around? Earthworm. When you have a plant in a pot, there's no earthworms to make sure that the airflow is going into and around the roots. What I typically do is I take a chopstick and I'll just poke holes into the soil and that mimic the tunnels the earthworms would be tunneling through to the various roots of the various green girl. One of the beautiful things about plants is that there's simple intricate, a simple complexity to these green girl, if your queen is experiencing yellowing leaves, she may not be getting enough sun or you may be over watering her. You may want to make sure that you place that clean in a bright ambience spot. Or you may want to make sure that you are testing the soil before you water that queen just to make sure that she's drying out completely in between watering. If your queen is experiencing brown leaves, she may be getting to much sun or she may not be getting enough water. Again, you want to test the soil and make sure that that queen is getting the water that she need. You may want to bring that plant back from the window and give her a little less light. Browning tip of leaves could be an indication that there is a lack of humidity in that particular space. One of the great thing about humidity is that one is great for our bodies. It's also helpful for the plants so the more humid the space is, the less the plant is going to release moisture out into the environment. The more moisture that the plant contain is often better for the plant, you may want to invest in the humidifier. I have a humidifier in my bedroom, I have a humidifier in my plant door. You may want to invest in that. It'll be great for your green girl and it'll be great for your own body. Just really pay attention and look at those different factors. It will help you figure out what the next best step for helping this queen to grow and thrive and bounce back. Now that we have went through the journey of starting your green girl up and a wonderful spot for her to grow and thrive. Now it's time for you to sit back, relax, and enjoy the greenery that that plan is bringing into your life. Check on her in the morning, see if she's growing appreciate her leaves, enjoy her presence and be patient with her.
8. Plant Pep Talk: Root Rot Rescue: Darling, some of your plants may experience root rot and that is okay. It is not a lost cause there is something that you can do to save that plant and it is called propagation. Thought I would bring a little device that I have repurposed for some queens that were struggling or that I was afraid were not going to make it and to make sure that I preserved a piece of that plant, I propagated them. I repurposed this spice rack. This spice rack is now my little propagation station. These are cuttings of plants that were struggling. I just wanted to make sure that I cut apart of those queens alive. This was a cutting from a Monstera that was struggling and now she has this beautiful long root that she's growing in water. I'm going to be re-potting her soon. Now she gets another chance at life and she gets to start all over again. These are cuttings of a Pothos plant. Her roots are growing as well. I'm going to be re-potting her soon. Then this is also a Monstera, but this is the Monstera Adansonii. This is the Monstera deliciosa. If your plant is experiencing root rot, I would encourage you to take the plant apart, separate the healthy roots from the roots that are no longer living or functioning and place those roots in water. Let them get readjusted, wait for those root to continue two grow and then place that cutting into some soil. Now that queen has another chance at life.
9. Cultivating Your Routine: You now have that one green girl or multiple green girls in your space. It began. Do not be surprised if you found that you have maybe 20 plants by the end of the month, that is okay, perfectly normal. Continue to create up your space. It's alright. Now, I really want to share some aspect of how do you cultivate a plant care routine that is stress free, that if anxiety free, that is made just for you. Some of the things that I have begun to do throughout this entire plant parent journey is, make my routine fun and joyous and something that I look forward to. Watering my plants is a party. She'll fix a little cocktail, she'll put on a fun little outfit. She may put on her skill and she's laughing. You think. It's a fun time. I'm enjoying myself and I'm also taking care of my dreams at all. Figure out what's fun for you. You may want to catch up with a friend on face time. You may want to have the TV on, do whatever feels right for you to make sure that the routine is a fun process. There are some routines that I do every single day, which includes [inaudible] the epiphytic plant that I have, which are plants that have aerial roots and I want to make sure that those aerial roots are staying nice and moist as they grow up their [inaudible] poles, so I'm misting those in the morning. I'm misting my farm every seven to ten days during the summer month and every two to three weeks in winter month, I am taking a fun watering party to my green girls and inspecting each queen to make sure that she has everything she needs in order to grow and thrive. When I'm watering my queens, I'm also fertilizing them as well. There are a bunch of different methods in terms of fertilizing your plants. Some folks use boiled egg shell, some folks use various solution. You just want to do your own research and figure out whether you want to do more of a diluted situation where you have to add the fertilizer to the water or whether you want it to be ready to go, whether you want to go with a liquid fertilizer or a powder fertilizer or maybe you want to go with a more natural forest like AHL. Do your research, dive into it and you'll figure out what's best for you. I knock on wood, have had luck with not getting any infestations with my green girls. I have never had to worry about pest because I'm always inspecting the plant before I bring that green girl into my home. Let's bring a queen to the stage. This is the spiral cactus, newer queen in my plant farm and I absolutely adore her. With cacti and succulent, I always want to make sure that her soil is dried out completely before watering her. Typically, I'll put my finger in, two inches, I'll feel around in this soil and I'll see, okay, she's dry. That means that she may be in need of a drink and a little bit. I'm also checking and looking at her stem, making sure that there are no pest. Also checking to see if maybe she's experiencing any sunburn or if there's any fungi that have attached to her. She looks pretty good. I'm probably going to take some time and you the q-tip and go through some of her ridges just to clean some of the dust and debris. One of the things that you want to do when you're watering your green girls is to dust off their leaves. Plants are sucking in that beautiful sunlight through photosynthesis and so their leaves are their meal ticket. You want to make sure that there's no dust accumulating on those leave that could create a barrier to them catching all that sunlight. When it comes to watering your plants, you do want to set a schedule. I am a Google Calendar girl so I actually have all of the days that I'm supposed to be wearing my plant logged in on my calendar so that I known when I need to water my queen. I typically have them on various different schedules depending on the time of the year. Spring and summertime, the plants are really active. They are growing, they are reaching for new heights, they're climbing to the sky and that is fabulous. That also means that they're probably going to need a little more water. Also, there's more sun so they're going to be drying out a little quicker. You do want to make sure that again, you're measuring all those environmental factors of your space and taking that into consideration when you're re-adjusting your watering schedule based on the season. I water my green girls every seven two ten days in the summer months and I water my queens about every two to three weeks in the winter months. In the summer, I am making sure that I have sheer curtains, I have south facing windows so I get a lot of bright light, but sometimes that light is to much and I don't want my green girls to experience sunburn so I am putting up sheer curtains to filter some of that direct light. That is just perfect for my green girl. In the winter time, I am pulling them back away from the windows because living in Brooklyn, New York City weather is very harsh. In the winter time we get cold draft and so I want to make sure that my green girls are not in the way of that cold draft. I'm also utilizing my humidifier a bit more in the winter month because the air is a bit dryer. You just want to adjust your environment based on the season. It'll also help you as well making sure you have sheer curtains to filter some of that direct light is better for you in terms of the sun exposure on your own skin and then humidifiers in the winter time are wonderful for your respiratory system, wonderful for your body and wonderful for your skin. Through caring for your green girls, you're also caring for yourself. Something fun that I do is a little experimentation with my plants. Typically when I'm in a nursery and I'm welcoming a green girl into my home, I'll buy two of them if the price is right because she's on a budget. But I'll purchase two of them and I'll place them at different parts of my apartment to see which one grows better based on where they are. If one plant is doing better than her sister queen, then I will bring that queen that's not doing so well to join with the queen that is doing well and basically we pot them together. As a plant parent to over a 160 plants, I've definitely had my fare share of plant fail. Sometimes plants die and that is okay. It's not a reflection of you and your ability to be the wonderful plant parent that you are. Plants are like potential friends. Sometimes they just don't vibe together and that's okay. If you do experience a plant dying, take note, learn from that experience and try again if you want to or you can look into other green girls. There are thousands, hundreds, hundreds of thousands of options before you. You do not have to worry about that one particular plant dying because there's so many different options. Take note, learn from that experience and do better next time.
10. Final Thoughts: Darlings, we have made it to the end of this lush virtual journey. We have talked about assessing your space. Researching that green girl, bringing that Queen and into your home, practicing patients, and building a fabulous, fun routine that allows you to take care of your green girl and enjoy it simultaneously. Now, comes the part where you really just dive into it all and you have fun with this entire process. I've learned so much about myself. I have made beautiful connections with beautiful plant people who are just as passionate about plants as I am. I'm telling you these green little creatures, you can learn so much from them. So appreciate them, love them, and you'll grow with them. Your green girls maybe looking lush and they're thriving. Take a selfie, girl, and post it into the project gallery. I'm so excited for you as you begin on this journey. There's so much to learn from plant and darling, get ready. It's going to be a fabulous ride
Christopher Griffin, @PlantKween
