Happy Plants, Happy You Book Review – A Must Read for Green Thumb Groupies, Plant Lovers

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Category: Books

Published on Tuesday, 09 January 2024 13:30

Written by Janet Walker

Happy Plants, Happy You, A Plant Care & Self Care Guide, from Quarto Books and Author Kamili Bell Hill, presents a bountiful harvest of plant care methodologies incorporating her own journey of horticultural successes and setbacks.

Cultivated across eight chapters, Hill introduces herself to the readers, and explains how her journey from a depressed tax attorney to a plant entrepreneur was nurtured and the questionable steps, missteps, obstacles, and challenges to raising an in-home or outdoor oasis of greenery.

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The introduction, "How Plants Can Bring You Peace," explains her motivation to leave the legal industry grind which facilitated her journey to peace. Once she seeds the idea of finding a passion and peace without compromising one's sanity, she moves beginning with the first steps.

Visualizing, a lush, green, life-giving, home filled with a variety of houseplants, from hanging to potted, may seem, for some, an impossibility, and for those Chapter 1, "The To-Do List" (page 20) is written. Houseplants, as the author explains, have needs, more than simply watering. We find, as the author explains, her first steps to raising houseplants began by failing to anticipate the needs of her newest addition. This meant hard decisions on plant choices and Hill explains both her successes and setbacks in these early days.

Chapter 2, "Save a Little Something for Yourself," (page 30), where our journey into home horticulturalist sprouts. We find as we thumb through the pages, she begins to introduce houseplants that for anyone who has been invited to a home with houseplants, are the traditional "starters," like Pothos (page 38), ZZ Plant (page 41), Snake Plant (page 42), Hoya (page 45), Aglaonema (page 47), and Monstera (page 48). These are common and easy plants for any green thumb newbie to incorporate into their lifestyle.

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By this time in the planting season, what has killed many a houseplant is presented. Chapter 3, "Water Yourself" (page 63), takes readers on the cautious journey of watering. Hill provides throughout the book, two-page spreads, on cultivation tips, explaining the difference between the frequency and volume of overwatering, how to handle the plants pests that may appear and the best defense, and how to create a greenhouse effect (page 81) with a few simple tricks.

Plant lovers often extol the lifegiving virtues of houseplants, and as we walk through the remainder of "Happy Plants, Happy You, A Plant Care & Self Care Guide" we understand the author has done more than welcomed plants into her home, she has become enamored with them. As she cares for her plants, through nurturing, ensuring their needs are met, they reciprocate.

She articulates her relationship with plants in Chapter 4, "Would You Date That Plant," (page 85), and Chapter 5 "A Date with Yourself," (page 105), moves the plant care journey into self-care, as spending she sees the nurturing phase of plant care as a means incorporate self-care into her life. It is also apparent that the time she has devoted to nurturing her oasis brings her great joy, surrounding oneself in nature is revitalizing and inspiring.

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Chapter 6, "Gratuitous Beauty," (page 130), helps plant lovers assess their space and appreciate the beauty of your daily life; Chapter 7 "There is No One-Size-Fits-All," where Hill presents the inevitable that plants sometimes die, and the journey begins anew; and finishes with Chapter 8, "Plant Care is Self-Care," (page 158), which reveals surprising connections between tending houseplants and nurturing a more balanced, and healthier you. 

Happy Plant, Happy You, A Plant Care & Self-Care Guide is created as a guide to help those who are plant groupies, and those who desire to test out their green thumb. Hill walks plant lovers through the basics, from overwatering to replotting, and each step along the way.

A must read for green thumb groupies, plant lovers, horticulturalists.

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Title: Happy Plant, Happy You, A Plant Care & Self-Care Guide for the Modern Houseplant Parent.

Author: Kamili Bell Hill.

Language: English.

Release Date: November 7, 2023.

Publisher: Quarto Publishing Group USA Inc.

Length: 175 pages.

ISBN13: 978-0-7603-7950-9.

MSRP: $26.99 (U.S.), $35.99 (CAN), £18.99 (UK).