I don't know about you, but I love to see the first primula or snowdrop surfacing as it means that Winter is nearly over. Hip Hip Hooray! How exciting is it? Soon we can sow seeds, we can start preparing our gardens for the year ahead and we can tend properly to our indoor gardens repotting any of our plants that struggled over autumn/winter or that have outgrown their pots. As I have mentioned before I am not a lover of the Winter months I find it hard having very little natural beauty to admire and the darkness that comes with it. When spring arrives so does my new found zest for being alive. I kind of wish I could hibernate with nature in the Winter, this Winter has been even harder because I have not had the money to spend on things that bring you joy.
I've also experienced problems with my indoor plants, fungus gnats, thrips, aphids and spider mites so it has been a nightmare. Three people gave me plants that were infested and I trusted that they knew enough about plants to know that they had given me infested plants. I guess the only person you can trust is yourself and I need to not accept free plants from anyone, which is a shame as I love a plant swap. I don't use pesticides because they are toxic so why would you want them in your home? Not using them makes it harder in eradicating pests and sometimes unfortunately I do end up losing a plant or two when I give up the battle. It's usually spider mites that I can't eradicate completely, but I have realised that plants can survive even with a small infestation as long as you keep on top of showering and feed a plant regularly as in doing so you're giving it it's best defence. If a plant is healthy its unlikely to attract pests, most of our plants have struggled a bit with the cold as we rarely put the heating on so it's no surprise that we had pests. I hope you never get to experience the nightmare of plant pests and if you do just know that you're a plant warrior and you can and will beat them.