I’ve always been a plant person but when Quarantine first hit one year ago, my obsession went from mild to extreme when it came to bringing more greenery into our Hoboken apartment. Part of it was for therapeutic purposes really, I truly began to feel much better about everything going on at the time of early lockdown when I spent time caring for my growing indoor garden. I spent hours researching plant care tips & strategies, participated in virtual events such as The Sill’s Plants 101 Workshop & Hilton Carter’s exclusive Plant Experience group session, and found myself chatting with like-minded plant humans in several FB Plant Groups. Now one year later, I’m so proud of the plant mom I’ve become and all that I’ve learned in these last 12 months. Our home has never looked greener!

As many of you know, we’ve since moved from our 2-bed 2-bath apartment to a house in the suburbs of NJ – a few towns over where Thomas & I grew up actually. Although you’d think having a home ultimately means more space, it’s actually more of a glorified 2-bed 1-bath apartment with a private yard (& a gorgeous view of the river.) Definitely an upgrade but somewhat of a downsize in other ways – losing a bathroom, smaller rooms and less available wall space for 90% of our existing furniture. This also means finding new homes for the plants has proven to be a challenge too. But we’re making it work!

The reason I mention the size of our current home is because like an apartment, there’s only so much space for one to do his/her indoor gardening when it comes to repotting plants. Back in Hoboken, I used to get a new plant delivered weekly & had to find a way to repot it into a new pot while inside our apartment. I didn’t have access to our courtyard and it was far too cold to do it outside on the sidewalk – which I also don’t think I could’ve gotten away with either. So I had to get creative with a simple way to repot my plants without getting soil all over the carpet or counters of our apartment.

In partnership with Miracle-Gro, I’ve put together this fun video below sharing all the steps I take when repotting a plant inside the home, which is the same strategy I still follow in our new digs after all the snow we’ve gotten & the extreme cold temps. NO WAY I was sacrificing my fingers to repot outside in the tundra of the Jersey suburbs – hard pass on that one.

In this video you’ll hear me explain the importance of repotting your plants, my #1 choice of soil that best positions my plants for active growth for months on end, as well as watch me demonstrate the best way to loosen those roots without turning your table or floor into a total dirt bed. Of course, any spillage can always be taken care of with a handy dandy vacuum or handheld dustbuster.

*I don’t include video in my posts often lol as you can tell by the difficulty in resizing it smaller to view more easily. So I’ve also uploaded it to my Instagram to be watched more in-frame :]

Photos & Video by Kiera Lanni