Let’s face it, we live in a busy world. There’s basically an app or website for everything. You can find your next house on Zillow and even find a dog walker on Rover. But did you know there’s a website where you can find a plant sitter or become a plant sitter? You heard right. Just like Rover.com, there’s a plant sitter website that you’re on right now, Houseplantsitting.com. We are new to the gardening community but we are building up a marketplace for plant sitting that connects plant parents with experienced plant sitters. Of course there are other sites like House Sitter, but just because someone has experience watching over your house, doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll know how to take care of your plants.

Here’s a real-life story I’ll share with you to reinforce that statement. I trusted my friend to watch over my plants when I went out of town. After all, she did say she had experience with a couple of plants that were hers in her apartment. So, I didn’t have any doubts in my mind that there would be any problems – after all, she was my really good friend and she had a few plants at her place that were thriving. I have to disclose this first, I have MANY houseplants. In fact, I might be a plant hoarder. I can’t just walk into Lowes or Home Depot and not walk out with an orchid or some exotic tropical plant. I know, I know, it’s a problem. If there was an alcoholics anonymous for plant addicts, I’d definitely attend one of their meetings.

But knowing that I had a ton of houseplants for her to watch over, I decided to make a meticulous list of each plant’s needs, watering schedules, plant food schedules, sunlight requirements, you name it, I had it all down in a notebook for her guidance. I let her know that if I had one too many plants (which I am well aware that I do) that I could find someone else to water my plants when I was gone. She said she could handle it. I let her know too that one of my plants used to belong to my grandmother and was one of the few things I had left from her. I told her to guard that one with her life.

So away I went on my vacation to a remote place in the Caribbean that had very spotty phone and internet reception. You’d think in 2024 every place would have at least decent reception, so it was hard to catch up with her and get pictures of how my plants were doing often. Because I wasn’t able to consistently talk to her or get text messages of pictures of my plants, I was thinking the worse. The plant that belonged to my grandmother was an African violet. I specifically told my friend to leave the African violet in the East window sill because that was the right amount of light for it. I also told her to make sure it stayed well-watered and had a tray of water at the base of the pot for humidity. This was the plant I needed her to tend to the most, it was very dear to me.

When I was back in my hotel and not at the beach in a spotty, no cell phone reception area, I was able to talk to my friend to get updates on the status of my houseplants. I called her up on FaceTime and she gave me a tour of my house to show me how all my plants were doing. When she panned her phone’s camera over to my grandma’s African violet, the leaves were wilting and it was moved to another table in my living room. I asked her why she moved it from the East window, where the light was nice and bright. She told me she forgot to put it back in the window sill after she had it on the table to remove the dead flowers from it. I asked her to please stick to the list in my notebook so she wouldn’t have any issues with taking care of my plants. She’s my good friend, so of course I was nice. I stressed how important that plant was to me and to please treat it as if it were my only child. And to be honest in regards to the shape of my other plants, they looked sad.

Plant Sitting Services Would Have Helped

I couldn’t wait to get home but I still wanted to enjoy my vacation. This took away a lot of my peace of mind unfortunately, but I still had faith that my plants would be okay with under my friend’s care. A few more days passed by and I decided to just enjoy my vacation without worrying about my plants…for the meantime at least. I checked in again with my friend, and this time, my plants did not look well at all. My monstera was weeping, my orchids lost all of the flowers (which typically stay on the stem for a couple of months as they just bloomed before I left home), and my African violet, my connection to my grandma who passed away wasn’t doing well at all in my last FaceTime with my friend. Well, I knew I was heading back home in a day so I thought to myself that I would be able to revive and save my plants upon my return.

I get back home, leave my suitcase at the door inside of my house, and run straight to my plants. My friend wasn’t house sitting so she wasn’t there when I got back, she was just stopping in to water and check up on my plants. But when I went to see how my grandma’s African violet was doing, it was a completely new plant. Yes, you read that right, my friend replaced my grandma’s African violet with a new plant she had to have just bought. The color of the flowers weren’t even really the same and the size of the plant was almost half the size of my African violet. I called my friend up and very nicely asked her about my plant. After she realized I knew she had replaced my plant she confessed and told me she accidentally killed it and tried to buy an identical replacement plant in place of it. I was heartbroken to say the least.

She apologized, life went on, and I learned my lesson. Friends are just friends. You can’t expect them to be a professional dog walker, a house sitter, or in my case, a plant sitter. I know she was trying to do me a favor and help me out so I am just as responsible for the loss of my grandmother’s plant as much as she is. It still makes me sad though. Now I know the importance of finding someone who truly knows how to take care of houseplants. One size does not fit all when it comes to plants. Some love sunlight while others die in too much of it. So, it’s important to hire a plant sitter with experience and knowledge to take care of your plants when you’re away. Which is why I created House Plant Sitting. Our goal is to make it a place where you can find reliable, knowledgeable, professional plant sitters for your plants.

Why You Should Hire A Plant Sitter

As we continue to strive to bring you the best plant care while you’re away, we encourage users to sign up to our platform now while our service is still free. As we grow, we can’t promise that our services will be free but if you’re an early adopter to our site, now is the time to place your service listings free. Here’s what we offer:

·  Caretaker Matching: Our plant sitting platform matches plant owners with qualified plant sitters based on location, type of plants, and specific care requirements.

·  Profile and Reviews: Both plant sitters and plant owners have profiles on the site, complete with reviews and ratings from past engagements to ensure trust and reliability.

·  Scheduling and Booking: Users can schedule and book plant sitting services through the website, making it convenient to arrange care for their plants during vacations or extended absences.

I hope this blog post was helpful and convinces you to just not blindly trust a friend to take on a big responsibility like watching over your plants without any experience or knowledge. I miss my grandma’s African violet. Like I said, it was a part of her I had, that I will sadly never get back.