Reddit mentions of Success With House Plants

Hi! Honestly I think that what you're doing is the way to do it. Start small, take time to learn what each plant wants, and then slowly build things up. The biggest thing to learn is how to watch the plant. What does it look like when it's thirsty? When it wants more light? Less light? When it's overwatered? What does the soil feel like when it needs to be watered?

When I get a new kind of plant, I sometimes kill it before I figure out what to do. It sometimes takes me a few tries until I get it right. Don't beat yourself up if it's not all going perfectly. Just keep staying conscious, growing and learning.

Plants often need to be repotted when you get them - look underneath the pot and see if you can see roots sticking out. If they're sticking out it wants a slightly bigger home. Rule of thumb I've always heard is to go with a pot 2" larger than the one it's in. I personally like terra cotta pots (the simplest) but other people will have other opinions.

People have lots of different ways of caring for plants so I'm sure people will chime in with other (and possibly conflicting) ideas.

A few resources that might help you out:

ASPCA has a great website for looking up what's poisonous to cats

When I'm googling each plant for care instructions I try to stick to websites ending in .edu. These are often ag extensions with amazing information that I can trust.

IF you prefer books to webpages, I've found these to be helpful:

• Crockett's Indoor Garden
  
• Reader's Digest Success With Houseplants
  
  They're both quite old, but the info is solid.

If you want to garden, you can garden in containers under grow-lights. I don't know where you live, but if you have a home improvement store such as Home Depot near you, you can buy a fluorescent plant light and a mount (is that the right word?) for in the neighborhood of $30. Get a timer too.

You can also try growing lower light plants which would do ok in an average apartment, a good book on houseplants can help. I like Reader's Digest Success with Houseplants - http://www.amazon.com/Success-Houseplants-Editors-Readers-Digest/dp/0895770520/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1342551429&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=succes+with+houseplants

You can grow mushrooms under the kitchen sink if you buy a grow kit (available at any garden/veggie supply place, or online - they run about $40 also but last a long time)

I lived in the world's most cluttered apartment outside of Hoarders for years, and we did well with them. If you mount the lights to the ceiling you can easily repair the holes before you move out, if your landlord is picky about that kind of thing.

If you want to spend more time with kids you could volunteer with Big Sisters or another mentoring organization. I had a friend who did that for many years. If you can knit you might feel fulfilled making premie hats to donate to hospitals (not really spending time with kids, I know, but you might feel good about doing it).

You might have better luck getting your sewing machine repaired rather than buy a new one, check your yellow pages for appliance servicepeople. FWIW I got a pretty serviceable machine at Goodwill for $20. I'm not sure what you need a machine to do for it to cost $1K unless you have one of those auto embroidery machines or an industrial machine of some kind. The ones I priced out for myself, before the Goodwill find, was about $300 new. But I'm sure you know what you are looking for. I only mention it because you are saving for a down payment and kids, so just take advantage of good deals when you can. Have you tried craigslist/ebay?

You already sound like you are quite busy. I feel I'm mostly unqualified to answer your question because I've been living in this fairly new to me city for about 3 years and I don't know anyone, at all, except my coworkers, so I don't go out (which, in return, doesn't help me meet people) so all of my hobbies are pretty solitary. I do a lot of knitting and painting, I have a vegetable garden (you'll get there!!), I read, and I love to cook. I play video games sometimes, but not as much as I do in the winter. I like to watch tv shows on netflix and go on nature walks. We're probably not too different!