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In just five days Lucie goes from having no plants in her life to growing a jungle in her apartment. Learn with her what plants are the best for your apartment lifestyle.
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00:00I'm Lucy Fink and this week is 5 Days of Indoor Gardening.
00:04Hey guys!
00:04What's up?
00:05Welcome back to Try Living with Lucy.
00:07This week's video is all about turning our brown thumbs green.
00:11Indoor gardening has always been something that I've found inspiring and aspirational.
00:16Not only do plants improve our air quality and teach us to be better caretakers, but
00:20pretty much every single inspiring apartment photo on the internet has some form of greenery
00:25in it.
00:26And sadly, I've tried and tried to keep plants indoors, but without fail, they always seem
00:31to die.
00:32Rest in peace.
00:33So when I started planning for this episode, I knew just the right person to reach out to.
00:39Hello, future plant lady.
00:42Maria Faiella and I went to high school together, she's a Broadway star here in New York City
00:47and her side hustle is hosting and producing the Bloom and Grow radio podcast.
00:52My first five years in the city, I was a succulent killer.
00:56I killed every plant I ever brought into my apartment.
00:59I literally and figuratively went from zero to 60 plants and now I'm living in a small
01:03one bedroom apartment with about 60 houseplants.
01:06So if she can do it, then I can do it.
01:08And if I can do it, then you can do it.
01:12Before I started putting some greenery in here, I needed to dedicate the first day of
01:15this week to some field research.
01:17I went over to Maria's cute little apartment today and I took a tour of her setup.
01:22She has an herb garden in her kitchen inside of a grow house.
01:25She has plants scattered all around the living room.
01:28She's growing a lime tree in her corner.
01:30Tomato seedlings are growing inside of her bookshelf in her bedroom.
01:34And so much more.
01:35That's the funnest part about having plants.
01:37The more plants you have, the more you can spread the plant you love.
01:40So after seeing her situation and taking a few mental notes for myself, the two of us
01:45took a trip back to my apartment so that we could evaluate my space.
01:48I have such window envy for you.
01:51This is incredible.
01:53Western facing windows are the second best type you can have.
01:55Yeah, because the sun starts in the east and it's burning hotter in the west.
01:59So you're getting stronger light than if it was an eastern facing window.
02:02Afternoon sun.
02:04Nailing it.
02:04The next thing you're going to want to ask yourself is what type of plant parent are you
02:07going to be?
02:08The question is, do you want plants that you're going to have to water every single
02:11day?
02:12Or would you prefer a more low maintenance option that can thrive even if you're not
02:15home every day or if you have a very busy schedule?
02:18For me, it's the latter.
02:19And then we just did a walkthrough of my living room space and we talked through some general
02:23ideas.
02:24I can even grow some food in the kitchen with a grow light.
02:27Many of you have sent me messages already saying that you've killed every single plant
02:31you've touched.
02:32And that's why it's so important to do this evaluation ahead of time so that you're already
02:36set up for success before you buy the plants.
02:41Today is the day when we really start going green.
02:43I took Maria along with me and we went to the plant district to do a little bit of plant
02:48shopping.
02:48Yesterday, Maria taught me a few different potting and watering techniques.
02:52So when it comes to potting, you can either keep a plant inside of its nursery planter, which already has
02:57drainage, or you can repot it yourself.
03:00If you decide to repot it, you'll either need to make sure that it's in a pot with
03:04drainage holes at the bottom.
03:05Or if you put it in a pot without drainage, you'll have to make your own drainage system
03:09by adding stones or rocks to the bottom underneath the soil.
03:12You just have to be careful about over-watering and root rot, which happens when the roots
03:16sit in too much water.
03:17But if the pot does have drainage, you can either pour water right over the soil until
03:22it drips out the bottom holes, or you can just sit the plant into a shallow bowl of water
03:26and let the roots suck the water up from the bottom until the top of the soil gets moist.
03:30Because I'm a total plant newbie, I wanted to give myself the biggest possible challenge
03:35today.
03:36So after going to the plant district and buying our selections, I decided to repot almost everything.
03:41I got a snake plant, a money tree, a parlor palm, and a sago palm.
03:46The money tree was in a nursery pot that fit really nicely into my container, so I left
03:50that one as is.
03:51But for the others, I lined the bottom of the pot with lava rocks to make my own drainage.
03:56I took them out of their nursery pots, I gently massaged the roots to loosen up any packed
04:01soil around them, and then I repotted them in their new homes.
04:04I also got three smaller plants, Huorthia, Ripsalis, and a yellow moon cactus.
04:09And repotted each of these in a smaller pot that had existing drainage.
04:14Air plants were some of my favorites from Maria's apartment, and they're also very easy
04:18to take care of.
04:19So I got six of those to line up in cute little holders above my TV.
04:25And a couple of extras that were actually growing flowers to display around the apartment.
04:30These plants don't need direct sunlight.
04:32And to water them, Maria told me that you just soak them in water for one hour once a week,
04:36and then you let them dry upside down.
04:38By the end of the day, my comfort level with these plants had noticeably shifted.
04:42I started off pretty unsure of myself.
04:44I was scooping the potting mix with a spoon.
04:46I was very timid while I was touching the plants.
04:49But by the end, I was digging the mix out with my bare hands, and I was packing the soil
04:54in very confidently.
04:55I totally got the hang of it and knew what I was doing.
05:00And just one day later, I have 15 houseplants.
05:07The ability to grow your own food and to snip some chives in the morning and put them in
05:11your eggs is the best feeling.
05:13It's one thing to own plants and take care of them, but it's entirely different to grow
05:18living greens that you're then going to eat and nourish your body with.
05:21There are so many fun ways that you can do this, so today I wanted to show you two different
05:25methods to give you some options.
05:26First, I bought pre-grown herbs, basil, chives, and rosemary, and I replanted them from their
05:32nursery pots into a white rectangular planter box.
05:35Smells like pizza.
05:36I had to create my own drainage with stones on the bottom, and then after planting them
05:40all together, I placed the box inside of a grow house from a company called Modern Sprout.
05:45This is basically a glass and brass antique case with a strip of LED lights along the top.
05:50So you set the lights on an automatic timer, and then they mimic that gradual fade from
05:54dawn to dusk so that your plants get that perfect spectrum of light.
05:58Another amazing low-maintenance alternative is just get the Back to the Roots water tank.
06:04So next, I took the plunge, literally, and experimented with some aquaponics.
06:09I went out and bought a blue female betta fish to put in my Back to the Roots water garden.
06:15I followed all of the steps for assembly and then chose to grow wheatgrass, pea shoots,
06:20and sunflower microgreens.
06:22The plant bed sits on top of the fish tank.
06:24So basically, you feed your fish, and then the fish waste fertilizes your plants, and
06:29the plants clean the water.
06:31So this is a self-cleaning fish tank that's going to grow really, really healthy, nutrient-dense
06:35microgreens on top that I'm going to be able to put in my salads, my smoothies, and juices.
06:40And apparently, it's only going to take two weeks to grow, so if you want to track the
06:44progress of my water garden, check out my Instagram stories at lucybfink.
06:48I also took a poll on my Instagram stories to help me name my fish, and a majority of
06:52you guys voted for the name Buttercup.
06:54So guess what?
06:55I now have a fish named Buttercup.
06:58She's just getting acquainted with her new tank, but I'm going to go to the pet store soon,
07:01and I'm going to buy her some colorful plants and some structures that she can hide in.
07:05Buttercup is going to have the best fish life.
07:11My home is looking great, but almost every single day when I've left my apartment and
07:15headed off to work, I felt a little bit sad leaving my plants behind.
07:19And now I have a fish.
07:21I'm a busy mom.
07:22And now that I'm getting used to having them around, when I get to my office and I see my
07:26lack of greenery situation, it's a little sad.
07:28You're at your office five to eight hours a day.
07:31You're around a ton of synthetic material, photocopy machines, your computer.
07:35All of these things are emitting these volatile organic compounds, otherwise known as VOCs.
07:40And these VOCs are just swimming around in the air and they're really bad for you and
07:44we're breathing them in.
07:46What plants do is through their natural, everyday processes, they actually absorb these VOCs and
07:52neutralize them for us.
07:54Refinery29 does a great job of this already and there's actually a lot of greenery all
07:59around our office.
08:00But I myself don't have any plants on my desk, so today was about adding that greenery into
08:05my personal breathable air space.
08:07I went onto the Sills website and ordered a few plants.
08:10A Haworthia zebra plant, a Hoya heart plant, and a Parlor palm.
08:14They all come pre-potted.
08:15It's nice and easy and you just remove them from their packaging and set them up wherever
08:19you want.
08:20I intentionally chose these plants because full sun is ideal for them and my window
08:25at work is southern facing and gets great light.
08:27And also because they're super low maintenance and they only need to be watered once every
08:31couple of weeks or so.
08:33I set up one final succulent on my desk from Lula's garden and this one wanted indirect
08:37sunlight so I placed it a little further from the window.
08:40And four days later, I have 25 plants.
08:43I have to say, I'm feeling pretty green.
08:46For my final challenge this week, I wanted to take on a bit of a longer term project.
08:50Maria inspired me to grow my very own lime tree.
08:54I figured it was easier to start by buying a pre-potted tree so I got one from Via Citrus.
08:59It came in the mail nice and easy.
09:01And then knowing that my western facing windows might not do the trick, I decided to set it
09:05up in the corner on a stool beneath a Soltech Solutions 40 watt LED grill light.
09:11It comes with a timer so I set it for 10 hours of light a day, I made sure the
09:16light was close
09:16enough to the top of the citrus, and then I turned it on.
09:19This week has really changed my life more than most Try Living with Lucy episodes do.
09:24And unlike most challenges where I kind of just go back to the way I was living before,
09:28I've brought so many new things into my world now that are going to be such a huge part of
09:32my day-to-day life.
09:33We live in this crazy, overpopulated, polluted city, and as millennials, it's really hard
09:39for us to unplug.
09:40Bringing plants into your home is such a great way to stay grounded and remember that everything
09:45is blooming and growing at its own rate.
09:47I have 26 plants and a pet fish, and something tells me that this is just the beginning for
09:53me.
09:53I really hope this episode inspires you to bring some green into your space.
09:57And if you're looking for more tips on how you can try this for yourself, don't forget
10:01to listen to the Bloom and Grow radio podcast where Maria interviews tons of experts and
10:05learns along the way.