Moods & Neglect
Anyone else ever end up neglecting & hurting your plants because of you mood shifts (or depression, anxiety, others included too)? I've been struggling this week, & each time I see my plants, needing water, needing gnat treatment, having beautiful leaves turn yellow & not knowing why, & seeing that just worse, I end up just wanting to hide away, not see them. Anyone else? What do you do? How do you move past & take care of these living, struggling, plant babies? #planttherapy #pestcontrol #mood #emotions #desertdweller #desertgreggang #yellowleaves #gnats #arizona
6
I just did this. I had a really terrible two weeks where I could hardly even make it out of bed and to work when I needed to be there.
When I’m in that frame of mind I think of everything (self care included) as a chore. All my plants suddenly feel like an overwhelming responsibility. And like you, when I see the negative effects, it makes me feel even worse.
What helped me is I reminded myself that my plants aren’t a “must do” chore but are instead a source of peace and stress relief for me and that there isn’t any pressure to water them today vs. tomorrow.
Most plants are resilient and can handle a little bit of neglect now and again.
Keep your head up!
🥰🥰
When I’m in that frame of mind I think of everything (self care included) as a chore. All my plants suddenly feel like an overwhelming responsibility. And like you, when I see the negative effects, it makes me feel even worse.
What helped me is I reminded myself that my plants aren’t a “must do” chore but are instead a source of peace and stress relief for me and that there isn’t any pressure to water them today vs. tomorrow.
Most plants are resilient and can handle a little bit of neglect now and again.
Keep your head up!
🥰🥰
I hear this…and yes. I try to be kind to myself when I can, and remember that they’re showing me what I usually need too. So I’ll be like, have I had water today? Have I been out in the sun? I try to take care of me first and then when my mood shifts, I tend to take care of them again. I talk to them and say hello, that it’s been a while. I tell them I’m grateful for their patience and acknowledge my delay. I trust they get it and they know I’m not doing it purposefully. It feels like they try to be as resilient as they can until I can show up for them again. And when one dies in this process, I apologize, thank it, and move it from it’s spot on the sill. If you were struggling this week it was a hard week—you’re doing the best you can.
You're definitely not alone. Personally I tell myself its not the plants fault i acquired so many. As mentioned before plants are resilient so i take my time and make sure when i do go back to my plants they have everything they need so when i am feeling down i can enjoy them. Their beauty, their strength, and best of all their will to not only survive but THRIVE. i think in this plant life community i strive to get all these plants rare, exotic, sale price lol forgetting i have to take care of all these damn plants 😆 but on the rare occasion eveything is in its place i get to look around in amazement of all I've learned, all I've grown and how peaceful it is to have a place to call my own. Even if it's in a bucket of dirt, gallons of neem oil and a case of fly traps. Whatver you do, dont give up. 🌳 #plantaddict
I go through this from time to time as I myself struggle with depression.
I've found that naming them helps me a lot as it creates an emotional attachment to the plant that might otherwise not exist. Once I've connected with it I find it harder to ignore its needs even on my bad days.
Looking at them as the source of joy and happiness that they means I feel pride with every leaf, every branch, every bloom. That is something I helped the plant do so it gives me a sense of accomplishment when that's hard to find in my daily life sometimes.
I also look at caring for them as my me time. I put down my phone, talk to my plants, trim them, water them, feed them, and simply touch them and enjoy the love and vibrancy they add to my space.
When you have a lot of plants its very easy to feel overwhelmed, so I'll work on one space at a time, rotating my way through my collection over a period of time so no one gets neglected for too long.
But as the others have said, plants are resilient examples for us and they'll be there for us when we're ready for them.
I've found that naming them helps me a lot as it creates an emotional attachment to the plant that might otherwise not exist. Once I've connected with it I find it harder to ignore its needs even on my bad days.
Looking at them as the source of joy and happiness that they means I feel pride with every leaf, every branch, every bloom. That is something I helped the plant do so it gives me a sense of accomplishment when that's hard to find in my daily life sometimes.
I also look at caring for them as my me time. I put down my phone, talk to my plants, trim them, water them, feed them, and simply touch them and enjoy the love and vibrancy they add to my space.
When you have a lot of plants its very easy to feel overwhelmed, so I'll work on one space at a time, rotating my way through my collection over a period of time so no one gets neglected for too long.
But as the others have said, plants are resilient examples for us and they'll be there for us when we're ready for them.
absolutely yes. i’ve been there, i know what it feels like. the guilt. the frustration. the stress. here’s a small list of things that helped me:
💚 1. ask a friend to help (whether it be watering your plants, or even simply being with you while you do it to give you that extra motivation)
🌱 2. just pick one. you may not be able take care of all those plants if you’re not able to take care of yourself at the moment. but you know what you can do, even when things get really bad? you can take care of one. just one. pick your favorite/most meaningful/prettiest/the one you would be sad to lose/etc. and just focus on keeping that one alive right now. chances are, taking care of one plant may help to give you that sense of accomplishment and motivation and act like a snowball that could help you start to take care of the others, too.
✅ 3. set reminders, make it visual, write it down…anything that will help you decrease the avoidance that inevitably comes. even if you can physically go into a plant-free room to avoid them, having alarms or reminders on your phone will make it harder to ignore. this can get annoying, and for me i got fed up so i finally just did the plant chore so i could dismiss the alarm and check off that reminder.
♻️ 4. plant purge. i know this would be a last resort, of course, but if you feel like you need a little mental health break, maybe you could reduce your collection in order to help things feel not-so-overwhelming. i’ve seen many people do this! they’ll sell their plants (usually priced competitively, or they’ll accept offers too, so that the plants will be sold/picked up quickly) so they can spend more time focused on their mental health when times are tougher.
sending you a hug plantamigo, hang in there! and remember the most important part: no blaming yourself. everybody goes through times like these, and nobody is a perfect plant parent. it’s okay! take the time you need to focus on yourself, and remember that your local nursery will be waiting with open arms when you’re ready to go full throttle again, should you need to replace a few plants or add a few new friends once you’re feeling better 🪴
( adding these tags so that we can 🌿 grow 🌿 the mental health community here on greg: #WednesdayWellbeing #GrowingThroughIt #GregGroupTherapy #MentalHealthMonday #StrongerTogether #StruggleBus #AnxietySociety #ClubDepressed #PlantParentConfessions )
💚 1. ask a friend to help (whether it be watering your plants, or even simply being with you while you do it to give you that extra motivation)
🌱 2. just pick one. you may not be able take care of all those plants if you’re not able to take care of yourself at the moment. but you know what you can do, even when things get really bad? you can take care of one. just one. pick your favorite/most meaningful/prettiest/the one you would be sad to lose/etc. and just focus on keeping that one alive right now. chances are, taking care of one plant may help to give you that sense of accomplishment and motivation and act like a snowball that could help you start to take care of the others, too.
✅ 3. set reminders, make it visual, write it down…anything that will help you decrease the avoidance that inevitably comes. even if you can physically go into a plant-free room to avoid them, having alarms or reminders on your phone will make it harder to ignore. this can get annoying, and for me i got fed up so i finally just did the plant chore so i could dismiss the alarm and check off that reminder.
♻️ 4. plant purge. i know this would be a last resort, of course, but if you feel like you need a little mental health break, maybe you could reduce your collection in order to help things feel not-so-overwhelming. i’ve seen many people do this! they’ll sell their plants (usually priced competitively, or they’ll accept offers too, so that the plants will be sold/picked up quickly) so they can spend more time focused on their mental health when times are tougher.
sending you a hug plantamigo, hang in there! and remember the most important part: no blaming yourself. everybody goes through times like these, and nobody is a perfect plant parent. it’s okay! take the time you need to focus on yourself, and remember that your local nursery will be waiting with open arms when you’re ready to go full throttle again, should you need to replace a few plants or add a few new friends once you’re feeling better 🪴
( adding these tags so that we can 🌿 grow 🌿 the mental health community here on greg: #WednesdayWellbeing #GrowingThroughIt #GregGroupTherapy #MentalHealthMonday #StrongerTogether #StruggleBus #AnxietySociety #ClubDepressed #PlantParentConfessions )
i have adhd and anxiety so i’m tired 24/7 and i relate, sometimes i’m too exhausted to water on time and i feel really bad seeing my more needy plants get droopy :(
i’m sorry that you’re going through this rn, and i just wanna let you know one or two yellow leaves aren’t too much of an issue! ofc it’s not ideal but plants deal with way tougher conditions in their natural habitats and they still grow big and beautiful, even with one or two scarred or discolored leaves. calatheas are crispy even in the wild lol.
honestly i think plant collecting should be a hobby and not a chore, so maybe you could just keep the ones that truly make you happy and give the others away to friends or family. if you don’t have pets in your house that might eat your plants, systemic insecticides help prevent pests and save me a lot of trouble! i think self watering pots for the more thirsty plants would be helpful though i don’t have any experience with that myself. you could also consider pon (or leca, whichever you prefer) which eliminates a lot of the pest risks :)
i’m sorry that you’re going through this rn, and i just wanna let you know one or two yellow leaves aren’t too much of an issue! ofc it’s not ideal but plants deal with way tougher conditions in their natural habitats and they still grow big and beautiful, even with one or two scarred or discolored leaves. calatheas are crispy even in the wild lol.
honestly i think plant collecting should be a hobby and not a chore, so maybe you could just keep the ones that truly make you happy and give the others away to friends or family. if you don’t have pets in your house that might eat your plants, systemic insecticides help prevent pests and save me a lot of trouble! i think self watering pots for the more thirsty plants would be helpful though i don’t have any experience with that myself. you could also consider pon (or leca, whichever you prefer) which eliminates a lot of the pest risks :)