Indoor Plants: Fiddle Fig & Snake Plant

So it has been a while!  Life has been hectic!  I’m going to try to stop by here more now that I’m a little more free and back to decorating the house. A lot of the home renovations are done and we have been enjoying our house!  There’s always another project lined up or room for improvement so I hope to start documenting what’s been going on. I mentioned last week on my instagram I’m also going to do #tuesdaymuseday featuring home decor inspirations as well as #wanderwednesday featuring travel photographs.  As much as I like decorating and making things I also like to travel and explore!  It’s a tough balance and life is too short!  So if you’re not yet following me my insta username is @shopellion. Now that we’re just cozy-ing down this is when I just keep adding and adding to my decor around the house!  One of my recent home obsessions is indoor plants and gardening. Learning to keep different types of plants alive can be a struggle but once you do they make a space so much more interesting! I love the contrast of textures and greenery they bring to a room. It’s like bringing the outdoors in and some how make a space feel more homey and comforting. My current and on going favorites are succulents, cacti, air plants, fiddle figs, zz plants and snake plants! The picture above is of  my newest indoor plants, my 3rd fiddle fig and first snake plant.  If you have a fiddle fig you probably know they are very temperamental.  Like I said this is my 3rd one now and I’m starting to feel a little more confident in taking care of them. I recently saved the large one in my living room that I splurged on.  This one I finally found at Home Depot for about $12!  After reading a lot of online tips like “don’t over water”, “it might need more water”, “don’t use miracle grow”, “use miracle grow”, “needs more light”, “maybe you should move it to another spot”, “don’t move it because it’s temperamental about new locations” etc etc (you get my point),  I decided to try to move it to my sun room for more sun, used some miracle grow once, and made it a point to water way more than I had been.  I was so scared to over water and beginning a succulent lover I know how to not water until I realize the plant is dying.  Whoops.  Definitely under watered!  If your leaves are turning brown, drooping, and falling off that means you’re doing something wrong.  Once it was looking better the leaves stopped falling off and the remaining leaves started to perk up I moved it back into the living room and have been keeping a better eye on it!  My new method of watering is first to check the soil.  If it looks complete dried out and dusty that means it definitely needs at least a large cup of water to get the soil completely wet.  If it looks like it’s almost to that point you need to water it too.  When buying it the lady told me to do the finger test… I said OK… but I still don’t really understand the finger test!  Now when I’m not sure exactly how dry it is I’ll stick my finger in the soil and if it doesn’t feel damp or just slightly damp an inch or so in I add water.  Basically the visual test is good enough once you get a little practice.  Other than that just watch the leaves.  If you see the leaves drooping and hanging more vertically down then you need to re-evaluate your methods!  My advice is to start with a smaller tree to get familiar with it before splurging.  Best of luck! As for the snake plant this is my first but I am pretty convinced they are an easy plant. I was selling my candles at west elm local pop up when one of the nice workers told me the plants in the store were real, from Home Depot (just for decoration) and called “mother in laws tongue” I loved that name and it also made me remember the name since I’m so bad about names!   I also found out it’s probably more commonly called snake plant. HOWEVER, I just googled and found out that they are toxic to dogs and cats.  😦  A couple of months ago we got a new lab puppy and I also have a cat so we will be on the look out.  Haven’t had any problems with toxic plants yet but it is good to google and find out when you buy a new plant or are looking into buying a new plant. I also squeezed in a little DIY,  can you spot it?  I spray painted the terracotta snake plant pot a light grey.  Why are pots so expensive??  This is a cheap alternative to mixing up the colors of your pots.  LOOK FOR LESS, YES! Hopefully this was helpful to some of you!  I’m planning on posting some more of my indoor and outdoor plants soon as well as tips!