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My neighbor's 1980s fern collection got me thinking about how plant care has changed
I was over at my neighbor's place in Portland last weekend and she showed me her 40-year-old staghorn fern that she's kept alive since the Reagan years. She said something that stuck with me, which was that she's never used a moisture meter or any of those apps, just her finger in the soil and a calendar on the fridge. I told her I've killed three of those same ferns in the past five years, even with a $60 moisture meter and a grow light. She laughed and said maybe all my gadgets were getting in the way of actually watching the plant. I've been thinking about that all week, like how I check my phone for watering reminders instead of just looking at the leaves. It made me dig out my old houseplant book from 1998, the one with the yellowed pages and the hand-drawn sketches, and it's honestly clearer than half the articles I read online. Has anyone else gone back to the old ways after trying all the new gear?
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