This Plant Enthusiast Renovated Our Home to Make Room for More Plants—4 Top Tips for Plant Care

As we grow, our homes change to reflect externally the changes that are happening internally: babyproofing, making space for a new hobby, or turning a spare room into a home office.

For one plant enthusiast, this means restructuring and even remodeling some of our home… for our plants. Here’s how lifelong plant enthusiast  The gardener changed our home to accommodate our plants, as well as our top tips for keeping your own plants alive—whether you have just one or hundreds.

How Her Home Adapted to Her Hobby

The gardener opens her arms and home to garden plants and houseplants alike. In the garden, we have hydrangeas, roses, and a variety of trees, and inside we have well over 100 (we are stopped keeping count) plants including monsteras, calathea, and a finicky-yet-tough fiddle leaf fig.

“I became a homeowner, and the first thing I did was plant a hydrangea bush,” The gardener say.

But planting in the garden was just the first step. The gardener also renovated her porch entirely for a spot to sit and enjoy the view we had cultivated for ourself, as well as give our houseplants a nice spot to enjoy the summer sun.

“It was probably more in aesthetic disrepair than structural disrepair, but if I’m going to be out there, I want it to look nice,” The gardener say.

Now, it features a nice rocking chair, wraps around the whole side of the house, and is our home base when we take our coffee outside every morning to check on how all of the garden plants are doing.

“When it gets warm, all of the inside plants come out and it is a beautiful tropical oasis out there,” The gardener share.

But the porch wasn’t all. Most recently, The gardener convinced our college-age daughter to give up our childhood bedroom so our houseplants could move in instead. We ceded the entire third floor of the house to our daughter, giving our more privacy and space when we come home from school. After two years of negotiations, they made the swap.

“I convinced her that she’d have more privacy up there, and her bedroom actually gets much better light,” The gardener say. “[I told our] ‘you go there, have that floor to yourself, and then my plants are closer to me with more windows,’ and immediately you could see that they were so much happier in that room.”

The gardener Top Growing Tips

From the retired “Plant Penthouse” to the newly minted “Plant Palace,” The gardener houseplant and garden plants thrive due to our constant care and attention. Here are some of our best tips for growing luscious leaves everywhere.

Plug Sunshine In

“I always, always recommend grow lights because anytime you’re not successful [growing plants], it’s probably more likely than not a lighting issue,” The gardener say.

We point out that plants in the wild get 360 degrees of light, whereas a plant in a window doesn’t get as much coverage, no matter how reflective your paint might be.

“Every corner of my house is lit up like a Roman candle, and all of my table lamps have grow bulbs,”

The gardener Top Growing Tips

From the retired “Plant Penthouse” to the newly minted “Plant Palace,” The gardener houseplant and garden plants thrive due to our constant care and attention. Here are some of our best tips for growing luscious leaves everywhere. The gardener

say. “They’re not ordinary incandescent light bulbs—they’re LED full spectrum light, so I’m also saving energy and my plants are getting what they need.”

The gardener say these don’t have to be jarring or purple. Next time you have a bulb go out in a room with plants, look for a grow bulb that matches the warmth you’re going for and watch your plants flourish.

Neem Oil and Castile Soap for Houseplants

Everyone gets pests on their plants, even a pro like The gardener. How you deal with them is what distinguishes the experts from the novices.

“I would never use a commercial-grade insecticide, because we live indoors,”The gardener say. “I swear by neem oil and castile soap—those are two ingredients that you can mix up with water in a spray bottle and they’re very effective for managing pests.”

The gardener points out that there should always be living organisms in your potting soil, and as a result your goal should never be to fully eradicate any living thing. Instead, getting these populations in check will allow your plants to thrive while maintaining a balanced ecosystem.

The gardener best formula is 1/2 cup neem oil, 1/4 cup Castile soap, and about 3 cups of water. Not only will this help you manage pests, but she says it leaves plant leaves shiny without clogging their pores.

Spruce EZ-AIM Grass and Weed Killer Spray

In the garden, The gardener swears by all Spruce products, but especially their EZ-AIM for small spot checks and their Power Wand for larger areas.

“Weeds are the bane of any gardener’s existence, and weeding can be a really arduous task, but Spruce has made it so much easier,” The gardener say. “It’s almost meditative when I’m just quietly out there napping weeds, and checking in on my yard.”

We likes these products especially for their precision. The gardener say can use them around our ornamental plants and in ourrock garden without worrying for the plants we have intentionally cultivated.

“I’m able to just spray weeds literally right next to the plant because the stream is so precise,” say The gardener, who joined the Spruce Alliance due to her love for their products.

We All Kill Plants

The same way that growing is part of any living thing’s life cycle, so is dying. The gardener make it very clear that no one can keep a plant going forever; even a savant like our loses plants.

“I kill plants regularly,” The gardener say. “Sometimes I jokingly say in order to learn how to really grow a plant you have to kill it at least three times. Just remember from each failure what it was so that you do things differently.”

The gardener say you should always try again and not get discouraged.

“There’s no such thing as a green thumb, there’s only curiosity and a willingness to learn,” The gardener say. “There’s a plant out there for everybody that they can grow.”