When do you do something long enough, you become good at it. I’ve been a dog person all my life, and I am good at caring for them. I can tell when they are distressed, hungry or need to be taken out for a toilet break. It’s become instinct.

Then there are plants. I could always appreciate their beauty, but that was where it ended. I never attempted to care for them because they mostly just died, leading me to believe I did not have a green thumb!

Things change.

After moving to Switzerland, I was left dog-less a.k.a childless, and the emptiness was palpable. If you’re a dog person, you’ll know what I mean. There’s a reason they are called ‘man’s best friend’. Side-note: have you watched the movie Alpha yet? If you haven’t, I highly recommend it for every dog-person.

Ok, so back to plants. Desperately needing to fill this void in my life, and not being in a position to get a dog just yet, I turned to plants and immersed myself in getting to understand them. It took me months and months, with a number of them dying, until I realised (and told myself) few things:

  1. you are a beginner plant-person, so act like one,
  2. beginner plant-people should stick to easy plants before they take on the more complex and sensitive plants, and
  3. the safest beginner plants comprise of cacti and succulents

The moment these three points sunk in, they were literally life-giving.

Cacti and succulents are super easy to manage. I no longer have to wonder when to water them, because watering plants is tricky, too much and they die, too little and they die! With these guys, you can wing it and they won’t hate you for it and die. In fact, they’ll thrive, because their thick leaves store up water because both these types of planes are originally from arid or desert-like climates and soil conditions.

Bottomline, any plant that isn’t dying is a success story in my book!