Hi everyone…I have been catsitting through THS for almost a year now, and am currently at the very beginning of my 7th sit of the year. It’s been nothing less than a dream come true: the cats have been endlessly sweet and adorable, the houses have been (for the most part) spectacular and the pet-parents kind and gracious. The only part of the experience I have been struggling with is…the plants.
I have put a lot of effort and energy into trying to figure out what I have been doing wrong but I cannot come up with a solution. I have downloaded apps, used ChatGPT obsessively, followed the owners instructions to a T, and still, every single time the plants are worse off at the end of the sit in comparison to how I received them at the beginning, and it’s breaking my heart.
I have just now started a 3-week-long sit, and there are a bunch of plants around the house. I have talked specifically to the owners about the plant situation (there are roughly 10 plants around the house), and the guy was like: “don’t worry about it, we just water them once a week” (which is usually the type of instructions I receive). Ahhh…I can’t let them die on me again!
Any suggestions or recommendation as to how to better approach the situation?
Thank you!
Most indoor plants die of overwatering. Depends on the type of plant, some are super easy and some are just too finicky for their own good. Also the climate within the house. So many variables.
You missed one essential bit of info… where are you? What’s the weather like?
If you’re in the UK, once per week if more than enough now… if you’re in the north of the UK (ie colder still), you can probably get away with once every two weeks or even less.
The thing where most people do wrong, is they leave then plants standing in the water, never ever do that, unless you know that is what that particular plant needs.
Also, if you see any odd leaves that are suffering, simply cut them off, once they start to yellow/brown/crinkle etc that leaf is never going to recover, so snip it off low down on the stalk, because otherwise the plants energy goes into trying to repair that ill leaf which is impossible, instead of sending energy to the parts of the plant that matter.
If any plants have flowers, remove the flower heads once they start to die, so again the energy goes into the healthy plant.
You mention chatgpt, if it happens again, take a pic of the ill part of the plant and send it to chatgpt and ask it to diagnose the problem. It will probably tell you that you are over watering them.
Worst case scenario… just apologise and buy the owners a new cat-friendly plant.
As a rule of thumb, touch the top of the soil and if it’s at all moist, do not water it, and if it’s done dry, water it.
Where are you sitting now and what type of plants do you have? You can use Google lens to identify the plants and then ask ChatGPT specific questions about the photo “I’m located in [place] & it’s [month], how often should I water this plant [attach photo] and how much water should I give it?
If plants are looking worse off after your care, it will likely be because you are over watering them. Unless you are in a very hot climate, about 1/2 a cup of water per week for small plants and 1 cup of water for very large plants per week is ample. Avoid putting water on the foliage unless they are ferns then spray them with a mist.
Get very specific instructions from them. If they say just water them once a week, ask them how much water do you usually give them. You may not realize you are over watering if you are not following the amounts they tell you. With my own plants I know by feeling the dirt and knowing their needs. When I pet sit I always ask how much water they give their plants. Then they say, the two big pots get about three cups and the smaller pots get one. Then if something happens you were just following their instructions. I have a feeling that your concern for the plants in resulting in overwatering.
My husband had similar issues with my plants when I would travel. I would usually come home to at least a few dead, soggy plants.
I suggested that instead of watering the plants, he place a few ice cubes on the soil, allowing the plant to absorb the water as the ice slowly melts. I am not sure why this works better for him, but my houseplants now survive my absence.
With plants, they can all cope with being soaked. What varies is how long they can go before being soaked again. My method is to give them a good watering to the point of soaking when either the soil is obviously dry when lifting the pot or sticking a finger down one edge of the pot or when the plant looks like it is wilting AND the soil is slightly dry.
If your HO has said water them once a week, I personally would water them half way through the sit and then right at the end. I’ve forgotten about plants in odd places and they have gone a fortnight without any tlc and been fine.
Buy a plant hydrometer online. Super, super cheap and super, super helpful. Most indoor plants only need water when it says dry and it can be used on outdoor plants too!
I agree that overwatering and/or letting roots stand in water are the main pitfalls. Lots of great advice in this thread.
If you are following the exact instructions of the owner, you cannot feel badly about the outcome!
In addition to other tips, I always create a paper calendar (you can print them free from websites) and mark which days to water which plants, as a reminder.
I am currently in the UK and I have been following all of those basic rules you mentioned: I never leave the plants standing in water (I try to water give them a ‘run-off’ above the sink when possible), I am well aware of over-watering being the main danger, I look up every single plan I water on ChatGPT…and of course I don’t ‘kill’ all of them but all in all I feel bad about the results. Could it be an issue of a change in the routine of watering that causes the problem, or is it just me?
If the owner makes you a list of the names of the plants and their care regime then unless you are ignoring the watering instructions, everything should be fine. are you actually killing them off or have the owners criticised your care?
I have also been known to have anxiety about indoor plants care during a housesit .
There are Orchids that only need a 30second dip into a bowl of water once a week then allow to drip of any excess water so they don’t sit in a pool of water.While indoor Herbs in pots on a sunny windowsill may need watering daily . Many cacti don’t need to be watered for months at a time . And then there was a plants that watered diligently before discovering that it was artificial so didn’t require any watering.
If I see indoor plants during the handover, I ask the hosts about their watering regime and stick with that . (Apart from when one host who said that their plants should be sung to each day )
Fortunately there’s no separate category to rate plant care and I haven’t received any negative comments .
We once arrived at a (lovely) sit, to find there were in excess of 150 outdoor pot plants and numerous inside the home. We were told on arrival that the previous sitter had overwatered a huge indoor plant (I can’t remember what it was), which had been cultivated from a cutting taken from one owned by the HO’s departed father. Said plant was looking very sorry for itself and I was very concerned it might wither still further, and die during the long-sit.
On examining the giant plant, I found it was horribly root-bound, so contacted the HO and asked if she’d like me to replant it in a bigger pot. With this accomplished (and a lot of TLC) things started to look up and, when we did a return-sit the following year, it was flourishing. I felt ridiculously proud, but give me an animal to care for on any day of the week…
If this was a problem for me, I’d take a direct approach by:
Letting the homeowner know that as confident as I am about my ability to care for pets, my trackrecord with plants isn’t great.
I would ask for some explicit instructions left with each plant. Specifically, how many times per week to water and what amount of water (1/4 cup? 1/2 cup).
Since I don’t know which plant is which by name, please leave the instructions as a label on the pot or if too much maybe use color coded labels eg – orange tag on a plant pot has instructions matching orange tag on a list.
I’d warn the homeowner, that I know it might mean paying attention to something they just do naturally, but that it’s not natural to me and I really want them to come home to happy healthy plants.
