Being that we’re on total lockdown once again, I thought it would be a good idea to revisit a popular gardening topic: how not to kill your plants.

I’ve always had plants around the house, but only seriously got into gardening this past year. I felt incredibly empowered when I was able to transform a part of our yard, which had become a dumping ground of sorts, into a working garden with papaya trees, calamansi plants, and a couple of herbs. I recently added a bed of bell peppers, which would hopefully survive this freaky weather.

Of course, I did not get to this level of confidence around plants without killing some of them — actually, dozens and dozens of them. And so, in the interest of preventing green massacres as we’re all locked inside our homes, let me share with you some of the things I’ve learned as a serial plant killer.

#1 Do read up. It pays to research. Whenever I have a new plant, I make a background check. I find out how much water it needs, whether it likes the sun or prefers the shade, or if I should give it some fertilizer. Because I have quite a number of plants now, I screenshot the information I need and save. In this way, I can reference it in the future.

#2 Pay attention. Growing plants need time and effort. I am not going to lie to you. This is not something that you get into and then forget about after a few weeks. These babies are going to die on you except maybe for sansevieria and oregano, which are close to indestructible, although I did manage to kill a snake plant during my early days. Mwahahaha!

But I digress. You need to carve out some time every day for 365 days for your plants. Plant day is different from human day. A lot of stuff could happen with a plant in 24 hours while you finish a season of your favorite KDrama. When you pay attention, you’ll see whether the soil is dry, or there’s some sort of infestation, or if your plant is sick. When you pay attention, you will come to have an appreciation for the miracle that is life. I could easily lose a few hours in my garden. There’s always a lot going on — a new leaf, a bud waiting to burst into a flower, a branch crawling up the skies. It is wonderful!

#3 Find the best spot. Okay, these are for your potted plants. There must be a feng shui for plants, which I have still to discover, because each plant does have its favorite space. Think of Sheldon Cooper’s spot in The Big Bang Theory.

Explaining how he chose his spot to Penny, he said, “In the winter that seat is close enough to the radiator to remain warm, and yet not so close as to cause perspiration. In the summer it’s directly in the path of a cross breeze created by open windows there, and there. It faces the television at an angle that is neither direct, thus discouraging conversation, nor so far wide to create a parallax distortion.”

I believe plants are the same. They warm up to specific spots, and it is only when you figure out the spot where your baby will thrive and grow will it be happy enough to bloom and blossom. I sound cuckoo I know, but this is based on experience. When I have a new plant, I observe and observe and move it around until I find that spot where it seems happy with leaves lush, green, and upturned.

#4 Do basic housekeeping. Water your babies regularly, but do not overwater them. Watering our plants is like one of the ways we show them our affection, which maybe why we tend to overwater them. We want to shower them with our love, literally. So again, research so that you know which plants need more water and which need less. You also want to cut and prune. Don’t worry, you’re not hurting them. They actually want to be pruned so that they could grow even more leaves. Take out dead leaves and branches. It’s okay. Think of it this way: when you take out the not-growing-parts, you make space for stuff to grow.

#5 Accept. As with everything, there are limitations. For example, I got a bunch of lavender knowing that the climate here is in no way conducive to growing it. I thought I could wing it somehow. I was wrong, of course. They all died.

Yes, plants die. When that happens, thank the plant for giving you so much joy, fish it out of its pot, and use it to fertilize your other plants. Thus is the circle of life.

#6 Have fun. It’s a bit scary at first because you want to do everything right, but relax. Introduce yourself to the plant, and allow it to introduce itself to you. Admire its beauty. Savor the science. Sit back and watch your garden grow. It is one of the most life affirming experiences on this earth.

Photo by Sarah Dorweiler on Unsplash