Happy Plants, Happy You

A Plant-Care & Self-Care Guide for the Modern Houseplant Parent

Kamili Bell Hill

• Publisher: Cool Springs Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9780760379509
• eBook ISBN: 9780760379516
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Horticulture
• Index: Biological Sciences

In Happy Plants, Happy You, author Kamili Bell Hill of @PlantBlerd shows you that spending quality time with your plants is spending quality time with yourself.

Houseplants are so much more than a living decorative accent for your home or a relaxing hobby, and caring for houseplants should not be a mindless task. Instead, it’s an opportunity to check in with yourself as you check in with your plants. You’ll learn how houseplants can help you avoid burnout and bring a healthy focus to your own self-care. As it turns out, when you tend to your houseplants, you’re also tending to yourself. 

Houseplants have a lot of lessons to teach about relationships and the importance of a little give and take, including how to focus on the ones who love you back and how—like getting rid of a dead leaf or a mealybug—sometimes you gotta cut bait and bail on relationships that are bringing you down. Author Kamili Bell Hill used houseplants to exit the stress highway that was overtaking her life and she knows they can do the same for you. 

Easy houseplant-care tips to help build your confidence in growing, combined with wise and witty words on everything from managing “devil-spawn fungus gnats” to making your houseplant leaves shine like the top of the Chrysler Building, Happy Plants, Happy You is part self-exploration, part houseplant handbook. In a nutshell, it’s a plant-based roadmap to a happier you. 

You’ll get the lowdown on:
 

• How to choose the right plants for you as a person, not just for your growing conditions
• Advice on avoiding “vampire relationships” with plants (and people!) that suck you dry
• A wish list of the best tools for houseplant parents 
• How to date several plants before settling on the best ones for you
• The art of letting go of things that aren’t thriving
• Giving up on the illusion of control—and being totally okay with it

As your plants grow, you will too. Houseplants are a guilt-free path to peace, and the result of stepping into an intentional plant-care/self-care routine will be happy plants and a happy you.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Contents
• Introduction: How Plants Can Bring You Peace – My Journey to Plant Mamahood—The Path to Peace
• Chapter 1: The To-Do List – How Adding Houseplants to Your To-Do List Translates to Self-Care, Not to More Work
• Chapter 2: Save a Little Something for Yourself – Use Houseplants to Turn Borderline Burn-Out into Personal Growth. Plus, the Best Plants to Get You Started
• Chapter 3: Water Yourself – Houseplant Cultivation Tips That Also Cultivate YOU
• Chapter 4: Would You Date That Plant? – The Power of Reciprocity in Human and Plant Relationships—and the Art of Letting Go
• Chapter 5: A Date with Yourself – Learn How to Pause with Plants. Time Spent with Your Plants is Time Spent with Yourself
• Chapter 6: Gratuitous Beauty – Finding the Best Houseplants for Your Space and Appreciating the Beauty They Bring to Your Daily Life
• Chapter 7: There Is No One-Size-Fits-All – A Twisty Journey to a Green Thumb—Sometimes Plants Die. Try Again.
• Chapter 8: Plant Care Is Self-Care (And It’s Badass!) – Check In on Yourself by Checking In on Your Plants
• Resources
• About the Author
• Acknowledgments
• Index
• Dedication
• Copyright