Category: My Plant Journey

If you haven’t been following my journey so far, I’ve now moved flat! No more dingy basement, hello bright first floor! And, oh, my, days it is glorious so far. But boy, that move was fucking stressful. Not only did it take me a few days to get all my plants into the new apartment but I also got a chest infection at the same time.

So the move itself really screwed with my mental health. I don’t deal with change very well and the stress of the move really set my anxiety off. It was also super stressful trying to move anything whilst having a chest infection, I couldn’t do anything too vigorous otherwise I’d get super out of breath.

In my previous blog post (From BSMT to FFF) I mentioned moving around 100 plants. That wasn’t including my terrariums and the plants I’ve been propagating. I pretty much moved everything myself. 1) I wanted to slowly integrate them into their new environment and 2) I do not trust anyone else with my plants (obsessive plant mum here).

So a couple of days before the big move, I moved all of my arid plants over (all my cacti & succulents). I knew they wouldn’t mind the change in temperature of the new flat, especially with no one living in there. They’re more hardy than the rest of my plants, where some need that constant attention. Moving my arid plants was particularly hard than the rest, due to the majority of them being in terracotta and that just adds some much extra weight to a plant.

I then moved all my stock and terrariums over the next day. Again I didn’t trust anyone to move them but myself because I knew if anything got broke, I’d be less annoyed at myself than someone else. I gave all terrariums a really heavy water when I got into the flat to help them become established in their new surroundings. I love that they’re in the living space now. It definitely makes me check on them more routinely.

Then it was moving all the tropical and my larger plants. This was a little more difficult as these plants can definitely be more fussy with being moved about. I think that it took me a couple of trips at least to get them all there. Some of my tropical plants like my Calathea’s & my Ctenanthe setosa were suffering badly from cold draughts in the basement but they’re on the road to recovery now they’re settling into their new environments.

I did have a little help with moving my indoor greenhouse and my propagation unit which David loaded into the small van we hired to move the larger furniture. They wouldn’t have fitted into my car so I’m glad we could move them safely.

I took me probably around 4 trips (maybe more) to move all my plants, with a full car of plants everytime. I was really lucky that the weather was pretty mild and didn’t affect us too much.

I did have to throw a few plants away. I was ruthless and threw out the ones that had infections/pest or didn’t survive the move. I could tell there was no recovery for some. Already I can see a changes in my plants (and my mental well-being). A couple of my Ceropegia woodii re-flowered and I can see buds coming on others and lots of new growth.

In the basement flat I seemed to cram as many plants as I could into whatever available light I could get them into. The new flat is much more spacious for light, I’ve been able to spread my plants across 5 rooms almost. I really want to create a miniature jungle to live in. So I’ll definitely be adding more to collection. At the moment I’m at a count of about 120 and that will be constantly growing.

Thank you for reading and I hope that you’ll follow the final part of my journey on how the move has affect my mental well-being and my plants.

I’d love for you guys to follow my journey of moving from a basement to a first floor flat, how that will impact my mental well-being and my plants. This will be a mini blog series on my current living situation, moving with over 100 plants and the after effects.

I currently occupy a basement flat (underneath three floors of students) and live with David and another housemate. It’s not the most idealistic place to live. Over winter is get super dark, even during the day and really cold. This becomes super triggering as it just makes me want to stay in bed and not do anything. I really struggled with my mental well-being at the beginning of this year and really let it get the better of me.

Living below students is becoming a huge trigger for me. The annual change of students stresses me out and gets me all anxious. I also seem to get super sensitive hearing at night and can hear everything that’s going on upstairs. This will trigger my insomnia, and even with calming sounds on & an eye mask I won’t be able to sleep. And for me it’s not a case of just being a bit tired the next day, it’s all these really negative and horrible thoughts that come with it.

It’s not the most plant friendly environment either. Over summer they were thriving. The flat is so bright and cool, with the heatwave it didn’t affect them too much. Last winter I lost a few plants to cold shock. Also a lot of the tropical plants get damaged/stressed from the central heating being on. I find having cacti and succulents in a basement not too bad, the can cope better with the fluctuating temperatures. They don’t really get enough light over the winter and some would grow a little ‘leggy’. During the summer I popped them outside so they really could enjoy the heat & sun.

Now we’re not moving far from our current location but going from a basement to a first floor flat will really help me and my plants! It’ll be so light and warm even through the winter months. I’m excited to really have our own space and not have to worry about a housemate coming home or being around.

There’s a bathroom with a BATH & WINDOW. My more aquatic plants are going to LOVE it! The bedroom is north facing and I’d love to make a little Marantaceae plant display, (so Calatheas & Stromanthes ect). Then the lounge has a South facing window, my arid plants are going to love it! Finally they should get enough light. I can not wait to get them into their new environment.

Although I am NOT looking forward to moving all my plants myself. We’re thinking slowly moving them from the current flat to the new one. But it’s definitely going to be challenging. I’m already trying to prepare myself for some casualties. I’ve had to throw out (RIP guys) a few from my collection as they had fungal diseases and there was no way for bring them back to being a healthy plant.

We’ll be moving slowly over the next couple of weeks. We’ve had some furniture delivered to the new flat already which is super exciting! I can’t wait to share with you guys how it all goes.

Thanks for reading ✌🏻