STAY HOME WITH YOUR PLANTS: 15 fun ways to enjoy plantsolation

Feeling plantsolated? Some call it being stuck or trapped at home, but if you are a crazy plant person like me, you don’t mind spending time alone and doing all kinds of planty things all day every day. When you are done repotting, showering, pruning, talking and loving your house plants, try these and enjoy all the fun!

Here are my 15 plant activities for the quarantine. I was so inspired by Noelle's @the_houseplant_honey post with this very important message that she and other crazy beautiful plant ladies have for the plant community.

Stay home with your plants. It could save lives by @the_houseplant_honey

1. Plantducate yourself! Classes on Skillshare are free for the first 2 months. And there is plenty to watch about plants.

- You can learn how to care for houseplants with The Sill’s Botanist Christopher Satch.

- There is also a more in-depth course about understanding the biology and plant physiology concepts behind healthy plants Turn Your Thumb Green: Expert Concepts Behind Successful Plant Growing by ERay G. And many more on propagation, growing edible plants on your windowsill, sprouts and microgreens, etc.

- What a plant sees? What a plant smells? What a plant feels? These and other crazy things you can find out from a famous free online two part course on Coursera Understanding Plants by By Tel Aviv University’s Professor Daniel Chamovitz.

2. Start your very own plantstagram and get discovered by the huge plant community. Use popular hashtags to become visible to other crazy plant people, tag popular plant accounts for a chance to be featured. Join the Quarantine Photo Challenge April 2020 by @acoupleof_plants, @thelittlestjungle and @shereadsandwaters. Taking part in #plantphotochallenge helps you find many interesting plant people and gain a lot of new followers.

Quarantine photo challenge

3. It’s always a pleasure to water and repot houseplants, but don’t forget how important it is to change the top inch or two (2-5 cms) of soil at least every year. There is no need to change all the soil, the new fresh top layer will be enough to boost your plants with nutrients. It is also essential to get rid of the white crust from salts building up on the surface of soil. Spring is the perfect time for this, all the house plants need this extra support. And it gives your houseplants such a clean fresh look.

Succulent Wreath Coloring Sheet by @katya_riabykh

4. Totally relax with Free Succulent Antistress Coloring Sheets. Download here, print and enjoy a few hours of art meditation. You can also put your masterpiece in a photo frame and decorate a plant shelf with it.

5. Plant your windowsill garden. Parsley, basil, mint are the easiest. But you can always experiment with something more unique like peanuts, radishes, zucchini or strawberries.

6. Create a Plant Gallery Wall. Add even more plant love to your

interior. Print plant wall art for free here, put it in frames and hang around the house.

7. Learn to DIY something planty. Like watercolor succulents, crochet a cactus or make macrame plant hangers in 5 minutes, for example. It’s very easy and satisfying!

8. Create your own plant meme. Because plant people are the craziest people and there are endless reasons to laugh at ourselves.

9. Paint a pot. There are hundreds of ideas with step-by-step instructions. Some are real masterpieces and could even inspire you to start your own Etsy store. I would recommend starting with something very simple like making a face pot.

Just draw eyes or a mustache. How cute!

10. Graft a cactus. Because why not?! All you need is two cacti, a sharp knife and you can create your very own little green monster.

Grafted Cacti by @fictitiousarchive

11. Watch a movie about plants. Start with the

classic The Little Shop of Horrors, if you haven’t yet. But my absolute favorite is Little Joe by Jessica Hausner.

12. Make your first kokedama. Almost any plant can be turned into one. Collect moss while out on a walk in the forest, buy jute twine - that's all you need! Hang kokedamas around your home, it looks so magical.

13. Create a plant terrarium. All you need is a jar or a pretty glass, some soil, small plants (if you don’t have succulents, you can always quickly propagate something easy like pothos, mint, fittonia, coleus. Or maybe you have orchid babies?), and some decorative pebbles, stones or sand. I bought some pebbles at a pet store in the aquarium section. All the pet stores work during quarantine in my country.

Regrow Vegetables

14. Regrow vegetables: carrots, onions, What could be more amazing than recycling veggie leftovers and re-eating them again?!

15. Write a plant blog and submit it to Houseplant addicts. They are looking for writers to share knowledge, tips and growing techniques. It’s the best way to connect with the worldwide plant community.

Hope this is enough to cheer you up and inspire for the rest of the quarantine. I will be extremely happy if you try these and tag me @greenalmostbright on your photos.