New Plant Parent, First Hurdles: Helping My Friend Create a Thriving Balcony Garden

In this video, follow my friend’s journey into plant parenthood as she transforms her balcony into a thriving garden. After months of thinking about it, she finally took the plunge and started her gardening adventure. From finding the perfect plants to mastering the watering schedule, she’s overcome a few hurdles, and now her balcony is flourishing.

Follow us as we visit nurseries, pick out plants, and witness the progress of her plants as she navigates the ups and downs of being a new plant parent. Spoiler: she’s doing amazingly well!

Check out the previous video, ‘6 Plants, 1 Problem, Endless Setbacks,’ where I tackle the challenges of repotting my plants. These two stories happened simultaneously, with my friend starting her own plant parent journey while I worked through my repotting obstacles.

Timestamps:

0:00 Intro
0:50 Plant shopping
3:01 Pot Shopping
4:18 Repotting
6:13 Balcony reveal
8:03 Future plans

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Do you remember a few weeks ago I had a friend that came along with me to do pot shopping? Well, actually, she was not there to accompany me and there’s a much bigger story to that. [Music] So, I was chilling at home one day and my friend texted me. She said, “Hey, I’ve been thinking about this for a few months and I think I am ready to be a plant parent.” Finally, she made the big commitment. So, in support of my friend’s decision, we made a date to go plant shopping a few days later. [Music] My friend already had an idea of what she wanted. She had a short wish list in mind, but wasn’t sure if we would actually find them. Essentially, she wanted flowering plants with white or pastel colored flowers and ideally something that is fragrant. So, we wanded around, browsed through rows of plants, and talked more about her vision and what she was hoping to create on her balcony. And then she spotted this jasmine tree. Definitely fragrant and just the right size. We browseed further and she found a bugan villia in this really soft orangey pinkish color. I’m not really sure what the variety is, but she absolutely loved it. So, she immediately decided on these two and off we went with them. There was one plant that she was really hoping to get. But somehow, not many nurseries have the variety that she is looking for. But after browsing several nurseries, we finally found one nursery that had some, and that is the Bugen Villia Thai Delight, which is a hybrid mix of pink and white colored flowers. So, she picked one up without hesitation. [Music] We ended up spending quite a few hours plant shopping and by the late afternoon, we drove all her new plants to my usual soil shop that is quite nearby because she wants all her new plants reported before heading home. And these were all the new plants she got that [Music] day. But before they could start working on the repotting process, we needed new pots. Hi. So, we quickly measured the rough sizes of the plants, promising the soil shop, guys, that will be back before they close for the day. And then we dash to the pot shop that is 5 to 10 minutes drive away. We had about an hour before the pot shop closes. And my friend was feeling confident that we could wrap this up very quickly. But of course, choosing pots are never that simple, especially if you are a new plant parent. She had a vision, a neat, uniform row of rectangular planter boxes in white. Unfortunately, those would need to be custom made. And as far as I know, there’s no one around here that offers that service. So, we had to find the next best option, something that would work for her space while still leaving enough room for a small table and chairs on her balcony. And this process took a long while. The shutters were half coming down when we finally decided on a set of Nick’s best options, which included some basic plastic pots as a temporary solution. She had a plan. She said if her new plants survive past the first month under her care, she would consider upgrading the setup. So, we dropped off all the new pots at the soil shop, which kindly waited for us to return and told them we’ll be back the next day to do the reporting. And come the next day, I also brought six more plants from home that I needed to repot. [Music] So, between my eight and her seven plants, we had a full day ahead of us. We started the repotting process, working through all the pots one by one. I helped with choosing soil mixes, adding in substrates where necessary, and just troubleshooting along the way. Occasionally asking Chhat GBT for guidance. By the time we were done, it was very clear. We need a van to bring everything back. The only thing was we didn’t realize the van would take a whole hour to [Music] arrive. And when the van finally arrived, we realized that we ordered a van that is a tad too small. So, we spent some time figuring out how to load everything safely, trying out different arrangements until it all fit. Finally, we got everything sorted out. And by evening, the plants arrived at their new home, which is her [Music] balcony. And we spent some time moving pots around, testing different arrangement to see what worked best. [Music] We arranged all the plants based on light requirement and also added pot feet to keep the tiles cleaner and also for root air [Music] circulation. And eventually this was how her balcony looked like. [Music] It’s now been about 2 months since my friend became a new plant parent. And this period of time wasn’t without bumps and moments of panic. [Music] One moment she worried about the watering schedule because the heliconius were starting to have brown edges. Other times she panicked when she saw worms in the soil. At one point she overfertilized one of the jasmines and it dropped most of its leaves because not all times are nerve-wracking. The other jasmine tree blooms several times. [Music] And the bug villia grew much bigger. And these plants just bloomed over and over again. She’s mastered the watering schedule for the heliconas and there are no more browning edges. Just plenty of new [Music] shoots and the overfertilized dwarf jasmine plant is recovering well. So far, she hasn’t lost any plants, which is a great accomplishment for a new plant parent. I can see that my friend really enjoys spending time in her balcony now, which used to be empty. So, what’s next? My friend is planning some additional plants. She is eyeing some hydrangeas, and she’s still thinking about those custom planters and maybe even an auto irrigation system. She said she wants to give herself a few more months as the new plant parent before diving in further. So, we’ll check back in again later to see how things go for her. [Music] So many location.