Plant Care for Beginners

I told myself for a long time that I would never be someone who got into plants because they seemed like a lot of work and I thought I would for sure kill them. (Anybody else get that succulent in college that *supposedly* couldn’t be killed? RIP Bob)

That was me, friends. I killed succulents and even a cactus, and because of that, decided I wasn’t meant to be a plant person.

If you know me at all, you would think that last sentence is funny because I now love plants, have a whole instagram page dedicated to them (@_plantsbytaylor), and I’m writing blog posts about them.

I’m saying all of this to tell you that if there was hope for me, there’s hope for you.

I am a firm believer that plant care does not have to be difficult or complicated. When plants are in their natural habitat, they don’t have someone constantly checking on them to make sure they’re doing okay. They are self-sustainable. However, once you bring them into your home, that’s where they might need a little help because it’s not their natural habitat.

I have read some blog posts about the basics of plant care that talk about humidity, propagating, and a ton of extra supplies. While these things are great and fun to learn about the more you get into plant care, I think they can be too overwhelming for someone who just simply wants a plant to exist in their home without a ton of maintenance.

Let me warn you. This post is probably going to be like a book. But that is because I want to give you everything I have in my brain. I want to make having plants as easy as possible for you – so I apologize in advance for my word vomit and excessive details.

If you’re looking for the basics to simple plant care, keep reading!

What Plants Need

You’ve probably heard it before: plants need two main things.

1. Water

2. Sunlight

Pretty simple. Almost all of your plant care issues and mishaps come from giving your plant either too much or too little of these two things.

Honestly, we could end the blog post here and carry on. But like I said, I have a lot of thoughts about plant care, so let’s talk about both of these!

Sunlight

All plants need sunlight. Yes, some can survive in the dark corner of your dining room, but they won’t necessarily thrive.

But here’s the surprising thing about a lot of plants that I didn’t know: they don’t always want direct sunlight either. A lot of times, direct sunlight is too harsh for the plant’s leaves.

However, succulents and cacti LOVE direct sunlight. So feel free to put them right in the window. But most plants want the light to be indirect. So near a window or light source, but not so close that the hot sun rays burn their leaves.

Something to consider is which direction your window is facing. South facing windows are going to get the most sunlight, followed by west facing windows, then east, and lastly, north. (This is opposite if you’re in the southern hemisphere).

I have a large south facing window where most of my plants reside. I have found that they do great a few feet away from it. Whereas my plants in my north facing window sit right next to the window.

If you sit next to a south-facing window and then a north-facing window, you will be able to tell how much hotter the sun feels in the south-facing window. Keep this in mind when placing your plants 🙂

How do you know if your plant needs more sunlight? If your plant isn’t growing and you don’t see anything that looks wrong with it, it probably needs more sunlight to photosynthesize.

Water

I have found that watering plants is a little more tricky to explain, so bear with me. It seems like there are 2 kinds of people: people who overwater their plants and people who underwater their plants.

And these are 2 good ways to kill your plant. Luckily, there are ways to tell what your plant needs and as you get to know your plant more, you will get in a routine.

Now when I use the terms overwater and underwater, I don’t necessarily mean the amount of water in one given watering. I mean the frequency of which you decide to water your plant. Do you wait a couple days? Do you wait a month? (hint: don’t do either of those)

But giving your plant too much water in one watering could also be harmful. A lot of people recommend that you keep adding water until you see it coming out the drainage hole. But I disagree, depending on the kind of pot and your soil make up, it could start draining water right away or not for a while.

So let’s answer these questions:

1. How do I know when I should water my plants/how often should I water my plants

2. How much water should I give my plant?

How often should I water my plants?

I’m so glad you asked. And the short answer is: it depends, but most plants should be watered every 1-2 weeks.

There are a number of factors that determine how much you should water your plants. The amount of sunlight, the season, the soil, the type of plant, and more.

But with every plant, you should start here: Water your plant when the top 3-4 inches of soil has dried out.

How do you tell? Stick your finger down in the soil. You will be able to tell easily if the soil is still wet or if it’s dry. If you stick your finger in the soil and think to yourself: “hmm, is that 3-4 inches? The top inch is dry for sure, but it’s kind of damp…” you probably should wait!

I like to think of it this way: Imagine you just drank a whole water bottle and now you have to pee. Your friend offers you more water, do you take it? Probably not. (okay maybe not the best analogy, but I think it makes sense lol)

If you continue to water your plant when the soil is still damp every time, you could cause your plant to have root rot which will most likely kill your plant.

Root rot happens when a plant’s roots are constantly wet, causing them to turn black and deteriorate, no longer providing nutrients to the plant.

How to tell if you have root rot? Your plant’s roots will be black and the stems will start turning black from the bottom. And the soil will smell bad.

How much water should I give my plant?

With this question, I have also noticed that there are 2 types of people. The first type is people who “just know” what the right amount is, and the second type is people who don’t. Lol.

The simple answer is it depends on the size of your plant. Plants in small pots don’t need as much water as plants in large pots. Makes sense, right?

Most of the time, you can just water until all of the soil you can see is wet – which is a simple answer for people who “just know”. But for people who don’t, the general rule of thumb for the amount of water is ¼ to ⅓ the volume of the planter. If the planter does not have a drainage hole or does not drain well, do less than that.

If it seems like you need more or less, adjust it accordingly. Another thing to remember is your plant will probably need to be watered more in the spring and summer than fall or winter! Spring and summer are considered “growing seasons” because there is more sunlight and plants tend to grow faster with the warmer temperatures.

The most obvious sign to tell if your plant is not vibing with the amount of water you’re giving it is…

Yellow leaves.

Unfortunately, yellow leaves are a symptom of too much and too little water. It’s a real bummer. Like, why couldn’t one be a different color? It only makes things more difficult. Anyway, we can work through this, here’s some tips to figure out what your yellow leaves mean.

If you notice a leaf turning yellow, my first tip is to check the soil. Is it dry or damp? If it’s dry and you have a leaf turning yellow, that usually means underwatering. If it’s damp, it has too much water, and you should hold off on watering until the plant completely dries out.

My second tip is to feel the texture of the leaf. If it’s soft and almost mushy, overwatering is the culprit. If it’s more crunchy and on its way to turning brown, underwatering is more likely. But keep in mind this doesn’t work on all plants, mostly just pothos and philodendrons.

Lastly, just consider how much you water and try doing something different. If you water once a week, consider moving it to every 10 days. And vice versa. Sometimes it just takes trial and error.

But also…

Remember that yellow leaves are normal. Don’t get too stressed when you see a yellow leaf! Sometimes your plant is just getting rid of old leaves to make way for new ones 🙂 I get yellow leaves all the time and I just cut them off!

Figuring out what works for your specific plant could be a little tricky, but with trial and error, you will eventually get to know your plant.

Whenever I get a new plant, I always Google search how to care for it. That way, you can get an even better starting point that’s more detailed for the type of plant you have.

(I’m going to be working on specific plant care posts: stay tuned!)

Once you figure out sunlight and watering, you’re basically good to go. But I will quickly cover some other things that I think are important.

How often do I check on my plants?

I like to keep things simple and I found it was too overwhelming for me to check on my plants every day. So now, I check on my plants every Sunday and Wednesday. I use my watering app (see next question) to see which plants have not been watered for over a week and I check those ones. Plants that have been watered in the last week are usually still fine for a few more days.

How do I keep track of watering?

I use an app called Tierra. It’s super nice because you can take a picture of your plant and then click the water droplet to record when you water it. So you can see the past date you watered!

You also have the option to set up a watering reminder for each plant.

Fertilizer

I think fertilizer is awesome to use, but not 100% necessary. Personally, I use it every time I water. But I didn’t use it for over a year and half when I first got into plants and they still did good!

Some people will recommend only fertilizing in the spring and summer. I fertilize year-round, but might not fertilize every time I water like I do in the growing seasons.

Here is a link to my favorite fertilizer! 

Repotting

Something that I have noticed with a lot of people is that they feel like they need to repot their plants multiple times a year. This isn’t necessarily the case.

It is not determined on the size of the plant above the pot, but the roots! You should repot your plant when the roots need more space. How do you tell? Roots might be sticking out the top or the bottom of the pot. Or you might notice your plant’s new growth is smaller than it should be or a weird color or that your plant stops growing all together. Another sign is if your roots start to form to the shape of the pot, it’s probably time for more space!

When you do decide to repot, only go up one pot size, which is usually 2 inches bigger in diameter at the top.

I have found that my plants are usually good in their pots for about a year on average!

Pests

My least favorite part of having plants are pests. Unfortunately, if you have plants, you won’t be able to avoid pests forever. It’s very common, but also annoying so I feel your pain.

Here is a link to my favorite pesticide. I am hoping to do more in-depth posts in the future about pests, so stay tuned for that as well!

What to take away from this post:

Plant care doesn’t have to be overwhelming! Once you find a place in your home to put your plant, all you have to do is remember to water it.

My plants get watered every 1-2 weeks, but with winter coming up, I will probably wait longer in between waterings.

Set 2-3 days in your weekly routine to check on your plants to see if they need water. I have weekly reminders set in my phone for every Sunday and Wednesday to remind me, but now that I have been doing this for a while I usually remember on my own!

Comment below or message me on Instagram if you have any questions about your plant care! And let me know if I forgot to include anything 🙂