Best Plants For Busy Lifestyles

Now, I’m no plant expert, but I have managed to keep a range of plants alive on my balcony, I assume through sheer dumb luck. It may be because I choose plants that are good for people with busy (or lazy) lifestyles. It may be because I’m a natural plant grower, who has figured out how to channel the power of Mother Earth herself. Either way, here are a few plants that I’ve managed to keep alive without really knowing what I’m doing, so they may be good for you too…

Spider Plant

This Spider Plant has been through thick and thin. I think it’s moved house 3 or 4 times with me. Its leaves are a little on the short side right now because Korra (my norty cat) decided to monch on them recently. That’s why it’s now located outside. Either way, it started as a small clipping that I picked up from my old neighbourhood (that’s how most of my plants start), and has blossomed into a leafy goddess!

To grow a Spider Plant from a clipping, you need to make sure you take one of the little bundle-like leaf sections called ‘pups’. The pups just look like tiny little version of the larger plant. Sit the pup leaves up in a jar of water until it grows roots, then plant it in soil. As long as it’s got a little sunlight and you water it every few weeks it’ll be happy.

Succulents

Good old succulents. Much like my Spider Plant, most of these bad boys have been scavenged from neighbourhood gardens as clippings. The easiest succulents to find are Money Plants as they’re frequently used in public gardens, but if you scope out your area you can probably find any of the ones in the image above (unsure of their names, I just know I’ve seen them around). Just make sure you take only a small stem from each plant and if you are taking the cuttings from a small garden, it might be best to ask the garden owner before snipping.

To grow them just sit the cut end in water until it sprouts roots, then plant in soil and water maybe once every week or so. They can also survive in water only, if you don’t want to plant them. The best thing about succs is that it doesn’t really matter if you neglect them occasionally. They’re easy to bring back from the brink and they really don’t need much water at all because they store water in their stems and leaves.

Devil’s Ivy

This luscious Devil’s Ivy came from a lovely lady on Facebook Marketplace (best place to find cheap plants). Devil’s Ivy grows super quickly and it’s pretty hardy too.

Again, you can easily grow Devil’s Ivy from clippings. Make sure you clip enough of the plant that you get the root nodules – you’ll need to pop these in water to sprout before planting. You can even leave it in water, if you so desire, rather than planting in soil. I’ve seen HUGE Devil’s Ivy plants that grow purely in water and they look AMAZING. These plants don’t need much. Maybe a little water every week or so if they’re not already sitting in it.

Rubber Plant

Rubber Plants are such a good plant for people with busy lifestyles. They really only need a water every week or so and they can grow to insane sizes depending on the size of the pot you plant them in. I recently repotted mine into this larger pot and it’s absolutely loving it! It even sprouted a new little baby plant at the base.

They’re great indoor or outdoor, they don’t really like direct sunlight, but indirect sunlight is perfect. Just put your Rubber Plant in a huge pot and watch it take over your entire house!

Sunflowers

This sunflower was such a happy accident. I feed birds on my balcony and some of the birdseed fell into an unused container and into the balcony carpet. We had a few days of rain and the next thing I know, I had about 20 little sunflower sprouts coming up. This was the one that flourished the most so I planted it in a bigger pot and lo and behold, I have a beautiful sunflower that’s just about ready to bloom! I had some trouble with baby caterpillars on the leaves (that’s what the holes are from) but they were swiftly dealt with.

If you want sunflowers, buy birdseed, throw it around your balcony, wait for some rain and boom – sunflowers. Seriously though, I have no idea how I’ve managed to keep this thing alive as long as I have.

I have also managed to GROW AN AVOCADO TREE FROM THE SEED. Sorry for yelling, I’m just very excited about it. I might put the avocado tree growing process into a future blog so stay tuned if you’re keen on learning how to get that going. This is it…

Such a cutie.

Anyway, that’s all from me for now. I hope this helped a budding plant owner make some good choices when it comes to adopting a little green plant baby.

What are your favourite low-maintenance plants? Let me know in the comments.

Kates x