Seasonal Plant Parent Guilt

The season shift to fall happened a few weeks ago here. So, I'm considering bringing some of my patio plants inside for the winter. All the garden and planty people online say you should carefully inspect your plants and quarantine them for at least 2 weeks when you bring them inside. They also say you should gradually adjust them to indoor environments, the opposite of hardening off, I guess.

(I know they say these things because I have written that exact advice for many clients in the past 😆)

They're not wrong. Ideally, you would inspect, quarantine, and treat your plants for pests when bringing them inside before it starts freezing at night. But how many of us have the time, space, or organizational abilities to actually do that?

I don't. As usual for a plant parent, I have too many plants, even though I gave away 10 last week (and bought 3 new ones.) I have plants in every room of my apartment that has windows. That's only 3 rooms. So, I'd have to rearrange a bunch of plants to make a quarantine room. I also have over 40 plants that need to come inside this year...

Most pests also have legs or wings, so shutting the door on a room will not stop them from getting to my other houseplants. 

I also push my luck on time. I think, "it's warm; I have a few weeks yet." Then suddenly, the forecast will be like, "Freezing temperatures, -1 to -5 every night this week," and I'll have to haul all my plants inside before bed one night. 

All this to say that if you're like me, maybe you have ADHD too, don't feel bad if you're rushing at the end of summer to bring plants inside. It's ok; you're not a bad plant parent. 

It's also OK if you don't get around to bringing them inside before the frost gets them. It's ok if you forget them for a night and they get a bit of frost. Some of them are likely tough enough to withstand a degree or two of freezing without fully dying. 

I love my plants, but at the end of the day, I have to remind myself that they are plants. Most of them are replaceable, and stressing myself out about them doesn't help me or them.