The journal
Notes on growing things
Plant care, shared chores, and the occasional unsolicited opinion.
August 12, 2026 · 6 min read
How much light does your room actually get?
“Bright indirect light” describes about one square metre of most rented flats. The shadow test, why light falls off faster than it looks, and what to do about a genuinely dark home.
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August 5, 2026 · 6 min read
Why are my plant’s leaves turning yellow?
Yellow leaves are a symptom, not a diagnosis — almost everything that can go wrong produces them. Triage by pattern instead: which leaves, in what order, and what else is true.
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July 29, 2026 · 6 min read
Signs of overwatering (and how to fix it)
An overwatered plant looks exactly like a thirsty one, which is why people keep watering it. How to tell them apart in two minutes, what to do about root rot, and the shared-household version nobody warns you about.
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July 22, 2026 · 6 min read
Moving in together: merging two plant collections
Two collections, one flat, and a caretaker gap nobody notices until something dies. Quarantine, duplicates, the awkward truth about “our” plants, and reconciling two watering schedules without an argument.
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July 15, 2026 · 6 min read
Setting up plant care so a non-plant-person can help
You can’t delegate noticing to someone who isn’t interested — only doing. How to hand over plants in a way that survives contact with a housemate who does not care about plants.
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July 8, 2026 · 6 min read
What to actually leave for a plant sitter
Plant-sitting goes wrong because the instructions were written by someone who already knows the answer. Write actions, not conditions — plus the five things to leave, and the permission slip most people forget.
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July 1, 2026 · 6 min read
How to keep your plants alive while you’re away
Five days is a non-problem; two weeks is a real one. What actually works at each trip length, which popular hacks quietly fail, and the handover mistake that kills plants after you get home.
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June 24, 2026 · 6 min read
How to split plant care with a partner or housemates
“We’ll both just do it” is the one arrangement that reliably fails — two people who might water a plant water it less often than one person who knows it’s theirs. Four ways to actually divide it, and what each costs you.
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June 16, 2026 · 6 min read
The most common toxic houseplants (and safer swaps)
A list of scary plant names is useless if your cat chews leaves. Here are the most common toxic houseplants, what each actually does, and a genuinely pet-safe plant to buy instead — grounded in ASPCA data.
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June 15, 2026 · 6 min read
Pet-safe houseplants that are genuinely hard to kill
“Pet-safe” and “hard to kill” knock out most of the plants the listicles name — pothos, ZZ, snake plant, aloe are all toxic. Here’s the shorter, honest list that clears both bars, ranked by how much neglect it forgives.
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May 28, 2026 · 6 min read
How to move with houseplants without killing them
I've moved with thirty-seven plants three times. Here's what changed between losing eight, losing three, and losing none — plus the long-distance freeze problem nobody warns you about.
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May 21, 2026 · 5 min read
Seven houseplants that survive being forgotten
Most 'low maintenance plant' lists are repeats of each other. Here are seven that genuinely fail in recoverable ways — ranked by how forgiving they are when life gets busy.
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May 13, 2026 · 6 min read
Sharing plant care without becoming the household nag
Almost every couple I've talked to has the same plant-care argument. Here's the structural fix that doesn't require either of you to remember more.
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May 5, 2026 · 5 min read
How to actually remember to water your plants
Why most people forget to water their plants — and the three systems that actually work, ranked from worst to best.
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