How to re-pot your plants

Today I thought I'd show you - well, more like tell you - how to re-pot a plant.
On a personal note, I've actually never really been good at the whole "plant" thing, until I decided to make my flat a little "greener" a couple of years ago. When I lived at home, my mum had loads of plants, but I was never really interested. But fast forward 8 years and I'm totally diggin' the whole 'plants and flowers' thing!

If you don't have plants and don't really know that much about them, it's important to think about what kind of person you are - plant-wise. If you know you aren't gonna have time to water plants every day, then get a couple that only needs water once or twice a week. A lot of people recommend plant novices to buy orchids, as they are pretty and the taking-care-of-them part is almost minimal. I have a couple of orchids myself, but I actually prefer green plants.

When you're buying plants, it's important to look at the price as much as the plant. If the plant is cheap and looking a little worn down, it might not be the best idea. Try looking in the back of the display of plants to see, if you can't find one that looks a little more healthy.
Sometimes plants have a little note-sticker on the side, that tells you how to water them. However, I think it's a good idea to always go home and google it - just to be on the safe side.
As a general good idea, it's always important to place your plants where there's sunlight - but not in direct sunlight, as they might dry out. What I like to do, just to help the plant be healthy, is to spray water on the leaves once a week - that way you give your plant a little more life. You can just use a very cheap water spritzer.

 

A couple of times a year, you want to re-pot your plants. This is important, because the dirt in which the plant grows, is very nutritious for the plant, but after a couple of months - depending on how big the plant is - the plant will have "sucked up" most of the nutritions in the dirt. That's why you should re-pot your plants; not only are you helping your plants to have a better life, but your plants will actually look better after a couple of days with the new dirt in the pots.

You will need to buy a big bag of fresh dirt - you can get that many places, for example a plant store, or sometimes local grocery stores also have them.
The process isn't hard, but you should really do it outside, since it can make somewhat of a mess. It's important that your pots have a little hole in the bottom - a so called drain - where the excess of water can go. Oh and remember to have a little dish under the pot. If your pot don't have a drain, then go outside and gather some small rocks and put them in the bottom of the pot - that way, if you accidentally over-water the plant, the excess of water will go down to the bottom where the rocks are.

Here's how you re-pot a plant:
Take the plant out of the pot and shake it carefully, so that the excess of loose dirt falls off. Put the plant down on a piece of plastic, and empty the pot of old dirt. Wash the pot and then fill the bottom of the pot with a couple of inches of dirt, and then place the plant on top of the new dirt in the pot. Remember that when you fill the dirt in the pot, to add a little bit of water so that the dirt isn't too dry. Carefully fill out the sides around the plant, and remember to leave an inch or two between the dirt and the top of the pot - so that the water won't overflow over the edges when you water your plant.
And that's how you do it! Easy as pie, and your plants will have a better life and as a thanks to you, they'll look stunning after you've re-potted them.

Happy Saturday ♡