The Potting Goblin
If it helps you keep your plants alive, use it. That's not cheating--that's smart.
There's no shame in using apps, reminders, or even grow lights to make plant care easier. You're not trying to impress your grandma's ficus--you're trying to keep your plants alive in your actual life.
What We Recommend:
Planta (app):
Great for care reminders, lighting guidance, and plant ID. Especially helpful if you're juggling more than a few pots. The free version allows an unlimited amount of plants and provides smart watering reminders and progress updates (with photos). Don't follow it blindly, use the 'snooze' feature if the soil is still wet. It will adjust the schedule based on your input. The paid version is reasonably priced and offers fertilizing, misting, repotting, cleaning smart schedules. It also unlocks the community feature where you can get plant advice or recommendations right within the app. We are not sponsored or affiliated with Planta in any way.
Your hands:
Stick your fingers in the soil. Feel the weight of the pot. Feel the leaves. No app can replace paying attention.
Grow lights:
Life-changing if you don't have perfect windows. Get one with a timer and a full spectrum (3000-6000k is what we use). Cheap clip-on models work just fine as long as they are full spectrum. The lights that only provide blue and red (blurple) are meant for vegetables and seedling starts.
Clear pots:
We use them for a reason. You can see the roots, soil moisture, and when its time to repot--no guessing. They work very well with decorative cover pots.
Dollar Tree, thrift stores, and plastic plates:
We use a metal bowl from Dollar Tree to water all our plants. We get decorative cover pots from thrift stores and yard sales. Instead of the attached saucers on some pots we use 'disposable' plastic dessert plates under all our plants to protect our floors and stands. We use clear plastic bathroom cups for propping.