This Will Instantly Make Your Plants Thrive

Keeping houseplants alive and thriving is so much easier when you have the right tools to do the job. When it's hard or time consuming we don't want to do it do we? If you're proven as a blunt, you make a mess when you repot or you're still using string to tie up your plants, I've got just the things you need to make your life 100 times easier. Some of these are game changers believe me. So are you still whipping out your green garden twine to tie up a lanky plant to a bamboo stick? Maybe you've got some moss poles on the go, more on them in a bit by the way, but are still messing around trying to use string even though it feels like you've got 10 thumbs. I was struggling with this not long ago until I saw an alternative that is a million times better. Velcro tape. It's dead simple but also genius. It normally comes in a little round like this and all you need to do is cut off a section the length you need, loop it around the stem and the support and it sticks perfectly to itself. Voila! What's that? It's in the wrong place and not quite tight enough? No problem my plant friend, just unstick it and go again. Rinse and repeat until it's perfectly in place. Much better than trying to un-notch string and all the frustration that brings. The houseplant hero is only as good as his or her pruners. Seriously, having a decent pair of sharp pruners really will make the difference between you wanting to lovingly tend after your plant or sack them off to watch the telly. For most little jobs I use these bad boys and I love them. Small, sharp and a pleasure to use. Smooth like butter. Mr Sheffield bought these from our local florist supplier wholesale many moons ago so I don't have the brand unfortunately. The only thing it says on the handle is pat my cut, whatever that means. For heavy duty cuts I whip out these bad boys and my plants run for the hills because they will cut through anything. Well, maybe not a tree but anything indoors at least. Again, smooth like butter. Spear and Jackson these are and well worth your time. My house faces east to one side and west on the other so I get morning and afternoon sun on each side. I used to plonk my plants down near the windows and assume they were getting the light they need. It turns out I was wrong and it shook me to my very core. I invested in this and my world changed. This light meter will tell you just how bright a spot in your home is and most of the time is a lot darker than you think. Your eyes really do play tricks on you. Anything below 500 foot candles is pretty paltry and lots of my spots were getting barely 100. This is where my obsession with grow lights started. I wanted Instagram worthy plants but I didn't have the light so I upped my Sansi grow light game. I've got tons of them now and all my plants are so much more fun than me. Finally! The first grow light I ever bought was this cheap Amazon one and it's not great. Not much life happening under there. But it's a party under my Sansi ones though. You can nab yourself a 23% discount with my code in the description if you're interested. The thing I recommend the most to you above everything else in this video is my free plant troubleshooting handbook that you can get for free with the link in the description. It's a handy guide to diagnosing common plant problems. Check it out. Did I mention it's free? I mentioned string and bamboo sticks earlier. In an ideal world we shouldn't really be using bamboo sticks at all. Sure they do a job but for proper support a good old moss bowl is a great idea. You can make your own of course but honestly who's got time for that in this day and age? Grab one of these plastic cages and fill it with your favourite moss. My favourite thing about these is that they are stackable and don't dry out too quickly. My plants are loving them. But moss bowls are ugly Mr Sheffield. Having houseplants is all about aesthetics right? I hear you and to that I say treleaf. A link to their website and a discount code is down below but just look how beautiful these things are. Sure you won't get the whole roots growing into the moss thing with these but what you will get is a beautiful plant support that will brighten up any spot in your home. I like the zeller because they are stackable and grow with your plant. Check them out. Another way to make your plant stand out from the crowd is to add some mulch to the soil. I don't really mean bark like in the garden as much as that doesn't look too bad but a better option is decorative stones. I've got this zeolite from Cybotanica and adding a layer of this on top smartens up your little mister in no time. This is a great little hack for succulents and cacti too. The beauty of this is that it keeps moisture in the soil for longer so if you live somewhere exotic the soil won't be drying out too much. For the longest time I made my own soil mix for my plants. Five parts compost two parts perlite that was my recipe and it was fine plenty good enough for the roots but not plenty good enough for my well-being because fungus gnats were having a party. Gnats and compost go together like cheese and ham. So I made the switch to Cybotanica last year and my gnat problem has gone down a ton and my plants are happier which is a boon. Plus their mixes come pre-loaded with worm castings and fertilizer to give your little darlings everything they need for at least six months. Links and discounts in the description. So compost was the problem with my recipe but perlite most definitely wasn't. In fact if you want to get serious about plant care then a 100 litre bag of perlite is exactly what you need. Only joking of course this is clearly OTT but what can I say I'm obsessed. I use perlite for many things and I rate it as highly as gold. Add it to soil to make it chunky and light. Use it to propagate in a fancy prop box or you can even use it as a home for your plant. They will happily live in it provided you add some fertilizer from time to time. Let's get a little thrifty now because I know how much you like saving some pennies. Grab a milk carton like this and give it a wash. Make a mark with a sharpie like this and then cut using some scissors. Congrats you just made yourself your very own soil scooper completely for free. My pleasure. You probably know all about my love affair with water conditioner in my battle for chlorine free water. If you don't then check out this video here. Now a little goes a long way with this stuff. Just a couple of drops per watering can is all that's needed and me being the ape I am I always struggle to not spill half the bottle in. That was until someone recommended using a pipette. Genius! I emptied whatever was in this pipette of Mrs Sheffield's and it's changed the game for me. Hopefully she doesn't notice. Sometimes it's the simplest things in life that give us the most pleasure. A beautiful sunset on the beach. A Michelin star meal. A black tray. A black what? A black tray. This thing is one of my most favourite items in the world. I'm not joking either. Pre black tray I was getting soil all over the gaff when repotting. Now it's all contained. Beautiful. I got mine from my local garden centre. You'll be able to find one anywhere. I'll make sure to add a similar one to my Amazon store as well as all the other products I'm banging on about in this video. Link to my Amazon store is yeah you guessed it in the description. I was whining about my nap problem a few jiffies ago and how Cybotanica helped a ton but that was only half the story. To get some respite from these unyielding beasts you need something to kill them. Kill them in the most gruesome way possible. And I've got just the thing. You see I tried everything from neem to hydrogen peroxide to lobbing plants in the bin but nothing really worked. So I turned to creepy crawlies instead. Beneficial nematodes. Release these into the soil and they hunt out the nap like Tom hunts out Jerry. But successfully of course. I've got a video documenting the whole experience and it was a lot of fun. Link is right here. Having an army of houseplants in the home that always need their nappy changing means I'm constantly in need of pots for them to live in to look halfway respectable. And they can be expensive can't they? Honestly the cheapest place I've found apart from charity shops or thrift stores if you're across the pond is Ikea. I'm not affiliated in any way though if you are watching Ikea then hook me up but their pots are nice and cheap. I don't know how they do it so cheap in all honesty. Mass production Mr Sheffield. So I went there last weekend and bought a bunch of pots that none of my plants will fit into. Genius eh? Always measure before going Dumbo. No products video would be complete without me banging on about the best thing since sliced bread. The humble moisture meter. This thing is a bit Marmite. You either love it or hate it and the comments to my video show this. But I think I know the problem. If the soil your plant lives in has a ton of bark and whatnot then the probe probably isn't making good contact to re-dry. Otherwise it takes the guessing game completely away from me and I never overwater my plants. Never. Never I say. How about something yours truly is made now? I've got something to share with you that I lovingly crafted over many months that is now being enjoyed by hundreds of budding plant folks the world over. My houseplant SOS course. If you're tired of constantly googling plant care tips and still feeling unsure and want everything you need to know all in one place then check it out. It's a series of videos and PDFs that make your plants love you and what's not to love about that? Details in the description. If you're a forgetful person like me then you'll love this next one. What the bejesus is that? This my plant friend is a terracotta spike. Yeah go on. All you do is stick this fella into the soil of your plant, insert yesterday's wine bottle filled with water and you've got yourself a self-watering device that was born in the ancient Egyptian time. Because terracotta is porous water slowly seeps into the soil and keeps the roots nice and moist. You might be thinking why bother with the wine bottle and I see your point but you need a decent volume of water sat on top so you don't have to keep going back every couple of days to top it up. And these are based on oyers in the garden and will do a job for your plants while you're away on holiday. And then don't overwater your plants. It's the little and often approach. Overwatering is this. Ever heard of the Darth Vader plant? Or the plant that hides itself when you touch it? There's tons of weird specimens out there that you won't believe actually exist but I bring them all to your screen in this video here so check it out and I'll see you there.