The state of my houseplants is dismal! I’ve been so good about watering them and making sure they have enough light but they need some serious maintenance. I’ve decided that in all things household maintenance and upkeep I will be consulting the household maven herself, Martha Stewart. I’ve purchased her book, The Martha Manual – How To Do (Almost) Everything, so let’s check it out and see what she has to say about this situation. First things first, I needed to identify what plants I’m actually growing and it turns out I have the following:
Sansevieria – I’m not sure why Martha couldn’t just call this a snake plant like every other human on the planet but I do have several of these.
Pothos – I really think she could have given me some photos to make this easier but a google search indicated that I also have several of these.
Chlorophytum comosum – Or spider plant isn’t even in her manual so I’m thinking it’s not bougie enough for her but I love these.
Then I got bored trying to figure out the rest and decided to move forward with repotting. I’m smart enough to know they all need bigger pots so I grabbed a whole bunch from the store. if you’re searching for fabulous vintage pots like I was check here: https://shopschoolhousesalvage.com/collections/vintagefinds.
According to Martha the soil is one of the most important things to consider when repotting and she suggests a custom mixture of course. After I went back and forth on this one, wanting just to purchase a pre-made bag because who has time to mix potting soil, I decided if I’m going to live like Martha I had to mix my own. Of course I Amazoned the ingredients which include – garden soil (which is just dirt with fancy compost from her yard), perlite for nutrients and ground coir for drainage. Amazon had all of this (shocker) and I had everything I needed overnight on my doorstep. I’m sure Martha would not approve of this but there was not a chance I was headed to a garden supply store.
I did however decide that I needed cute jars and scoops to hold my ingredients and grabbed some from the shop. It make me feel super fancy and all Martha-like.
After I mixed the custom Martha-blend, I added a broken piece of crockery (you have to call it this, not just broken china if you want to live like Martha) to the hole in each pot, filled with my fancy custom soil blend then popped in my near dead houseplants. The spider plant got a trim with my tiny snips. I put each pot on a drainage dish with some dried beans to create a nice humid environment. Martha suggested pea gravel but I had dried beans for some reason and I was getting real tired at this point of living like Martha. I feel like the beans will work.
The finished plant babies are adorable and will hopefully thrive for the rest of the late winter in the sunroom. I have so many more to replant so I’m headed into the shop to find some more vessels. if you want some fab vintage vessels delivered to your door, shop our collection here : https://shopschoolhousesalvage.com/collections/vintagefinds
Next week we live like Martha and find another forgotten area of our house to fix up or beautify! Check back and follow us on our socials for more shenanigans!