I have struggled in the past to not kill my plants so I decided to stop buying plants for some years. A few months ago I decided that I will try again, but this time I came up with different adhd-friendly strategies to help me take better care of my plants. And for the first time my plants are happy and growing beautifully.
I want to share one of them in case it will help someone else as well. I call it “the quarter sun bathing”. I used to forgot to rotate my plants, or if and when I did it, but this helped me to constantly rotate them. Basically I took all my pots and containers and marked them (from 1 to 4) in relatively equal for parts. This method can be used in two ways: on a weekly basis or monthly basis (I use it this way).
For the weekly rotation, you rotate the pot/container this way: for the first week of the month, you rotate the pot so the number 1 is facing you, for the second week of the month you rotate it so the number 2 in facing you, and so on.
For the monthly rotation I use an easy equation based on the number of the month to establish which number should face me so I don’t forget. The highlights are: January – 1, February – 2, March – 3, April – 4, May – 1, June – 2, July – 3, August – 4, September – 1, October – 2, November – 3, December – 4.
I would love to know what other little things you do to help with taking care of plants with adhd.
P.S.: If there are any nerds interested, the equation is: from January to April the number is the number of the month; from May to July the number is 8 – the number of the month; August is number 4; and from September to December the number is – the number of the month – 8.
by tovarasx
10 Comments
Thank you so much will give this ago i also forget about turning
Another ADHD tip: go for Leca or semi-hydro. Forgot or too much watering etc.. In Leca they’ll forgive u. No root-rot due to over- or under-watering. Also less bugs…
Wait I’m supposed to be turning my plants?
I do something similar. I write the plant names on a wooden chopstick or popsicle stick and use that as a marker for quarter turns every Sunday.
I have adhd and love my plant hobby. I just do one or so plants at the same time and then loose interest and do some others the next day. The key is to have enough plants so you can rinse and repeat. I’ve noticed they like it better when I dont hyperfocus on them anyway haha!
Some are just too hard to rotate, so hanging lights above them helped a lot as well
Some of my plants I rotate only when I’m having company so I can show off the full lush beautiful side 😂😂
I just rotate my plant when I notice them leaning and if it’s really visible. If they’re all on one side of the pot but look good that way, then I don’t try to fix what’s not broken.
I have a small white stick. That’s what I did to mark mine. I had a t-shirt dryer rack finally fall apart. And it had little white dowels about the size of your small finger. I also use that stick to make holes in the dirt to allow water to penetrate better.
I had (yep, had) a rattlesnake calethea, if I moved her a mm she would get crunchy. Look at her leaves drop. I tried to move her to her original home, even though it wasn’t getting the summer light, it was too late, Rosa Linda decided life wasn’t worth living. Some plants just don’t like to be moved.