Owen Reynolds Personal blog

You wouldn’t know it to see my house now, but I lived most of my life as a certified PLANT KILLER. Big or small, none would survive under my watch! That all changed in 2022 with the purchase of my first home. As I’ve got a long-term interest in following the ‘snow-bird’ life like my parents did from Winnipeg > Florida for many years, I adorned my house with exotic looking plants to emulate the flora of my 2 favorite southern states 🇺🇸: Arizona & Florida: Cactus, pygmy palms, Yuka plants and ZZs mostly

2022

I did ZERO research for the plants I bought in 2022. I was mostly buying at hardware stores while there for something else. So, for 2022, I’d estimate less than 50% of my plants survived, the ones that did were pure luck, for instance , my ZZ’s are still going strong 2.5 years later

2023

I did more research on types of plants that were resilient, I also bought a Ph/Water sensor to ensure optimal soil health & water levels. The plant survival rate moved closed to 70% as a result

2024

As the plant survival rate moved up, I got more comfortable buying more plants to put on an this super cool hanging acrylic window shelf (Amazon link) I bought in 2022

For 2022, this shelf was mostly a 🪴GRAVE YARD ☠️💀, but no longer!

Here are my plant friends shown at day / night. At night, ambient lights are turned on via a Govee WIFI enabled power switches

Also in 2024, I started using self-watering hanging plant baskets (Amazon link), what a revelation! Not only are they aesthetically pleasing, they avoid the common mistake of over-watering. A small shoe lace is passed through the bottom of the pot, as long as roots are somewhat exposed, they will draw water up through the shoe-lace into the plant’s root system. This is very useful for vacation ; I can fill the pot before vacation, and can be away for 7 days before the water runs out. I generally favor vacations of 7 days , so this is ideal

I’m also using non-hanging self-watering pots Ali Express link, the same shoe-lace method is used. Where some of my 2024 plants were a bit sick after taking them home from the store and putting them into non self-watering plants, I’ve revived them by transferring them to self-watering style pots such as the below

If you’re planning to go away for a longer period of time, you might need something like this Amazon.ca link)

I bought an IKEA (Ikea link) shelf just for the purpose of displaying plants, ambient puck lights are installed to show off the plants at night (Amazon link) 💡💡

Of all of my 35 plants, my favorite are the SILVER INCH PLANTS (aka spiderworts). Their growth is tremendous! Each has doubled in over-all size from when I acquired them in the summer of 2024. I’ve got one in my office and one in my kitchen window

2025

In January of 2025, I added these nifty floating plant holders to the railings that lead to the second floor of my house (AliExpress link)

I moved them around a bit, the final placement was towards the bottom

For other plant stuff in 2025, I’ll look at adding more plants to my bathroom, and home office windows, but the main living / kitchen area is done 🙂

Thanks for reading and have a green day 🌿🌴🌱

Owen