About the Plant Dummy

The Last Month Update

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This last month has been rough, especially with school. I turned out to be a lot busier than what I was expecting. I wish I had been able to write more but I haven’t been able to put in the time to do proper research. I wasn’t wanting to put out a bad article. I have been focusing on school, and wanted to get my office worked on a bit more.

I have been contemplated doing some DIY outdoor planter boxes when I get the chance for a while. My girlfriend really thinks that they would be nice to grow some veggies on the side of the house and look nice at the same time. I don’t think I can disagree with her.

Because the weather has been so nice, I started making the raised garden bed. The frame is all laid out. All I have to take the grass out of that area, and level it so the boards lay flat. I will most likely line the bottom of it with sticks for extra nutrients, as well as not having to fill as much with topsoil. I will most likely have to buy some starts from what I want to grow because I started too late I believe to grow from seed.

I hope to finish a few of my posts soon. I have some that are half written, but I wanted to take the time with them in order to make them worth reading. Another issue I have had is with the alocasia silver dragon that I bought, which I believe is having some sort of fungus issue/rot. I got it and the soil was not proper soil for it which I think was a main factor.

I know I should have transferred the plant into a different type, but I thought aerating it would do it well considering the weather has gotten warmer. However I was wrong, but someone did suggest I use a copper type of treatment on it. I have to look into that a little more but it is at least something I can try.

Thank you for reading,

-Plant Dummy

The $7 beauty of a Plant.

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Well, I made the decision last night. I decided to get back into the car, go down to Lowes again. Find the exact Dumb Cane, carry it around for another 10 minutes while I decide and look at other things until I decided to buy it for a whopping total for $7.

I think I got it for a steal, this thing has some broken leaves, sure. But it has new growth, as well as a couple of really nice looking bigger leaves. I don’t know if I will propagate the smaller ones yet. I have time to decide. As of now my dumb cane sits in the corner of my office, with shaded light from my window.

I am kind of nervous to cut the bad foliage off of the plant. This is because apparently dumb cane if it touches your skin can be a real irritant. I know I will be fine, but I really don’t want to get it on my skin on accident.

Anyways, while I was deciding on whether or not I wanted to take the $7 plunge, I was looking at the fruit/vegetable area that they had just brought in. There was a thing called a “hardy kiwi” which I have never heard of.

But apparently these hardy kiwis are a vine type of kiwi, which the fruits are from a size of a blueberry to a small tomato. I think I will have to go back and get one when the time of planting is. I think the guideline said around May. I need to double check. But I guess the flavor is favored over the regular kiwi fruit. So I am excited to give it a shot.

Perhaps that will be in part of one of the next updates, but until then

Thank you for reading,

-Plant Dummy

My Regret of the Day…

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While I am finishing up my office, I realize I need to install some curtains. To prevent creepy people can’t gaze upon me when I am working. Also to not let people see my computer setup from the street.

I make my way down to the local Lowe’s. I like Lowe’s better for home stuff than Home Depot… anyways, I make my way to the plant section as any normal person would.

They have a huge section this week, a bunch of new things even a monstera which I am ashamed I didn’t get (There’s still tomorrow).

When all of the sudden I spot them. The sickly dying plants that are on discount. BOOM, more bang for my buck. There is one in particular that I like but I haven’t ever had one before.

The plant was called a Dieffenbachia. Also known as a dumb cane. Which it kind of looked like this

It kind of looked like this one, except for sadder and closer to death. But the good thing about it, was that it was only $7 and normally they are worth like $30 from what I saw online.

So I picked the plant up and went on my way to get curtains. People were looking at me funny with this big plant that I was carrying in front of me.

Next thing I notice about the plant was some white dust looking stuff. And I was saddened. I inspected further… Yes, I am pretty sure that is evidence of Mealybugs in the little folds, or some sort of mildew, but this plant was pretty sick.

Photo by Byron Co on Unsplash

I ended up doing a circle in the store to take it back, I was thinking that I have too many projects going on, and shouldn’t get a sick plant. However I was talking to my girlfriend about how they had monsteras at Lowes for a good price. I think I might have to sleep on the decision to pick them both up tomorrow. This isn’t sponsored by Lowes in anyway either, I just sometimes like the plants that they have to offer.

I may have to give an update tomorrow if I decide to get one or both.

What do you all think? Should I just go for it?

Thank you again for reading,

-Plant Dummy

Plant Dummy’s thoughts of the day

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I have been contemplating for the last few days. On how much I need the elephant ear Alocasia. Heck, I don’t even know what kind of variety of the plant I want yet. I just know that I will get it eventually.

Photo by Macau Photo Agency on Unsplash

It is going to take some good strength to not drive down to the nursery and pick on up this next week. I know it would look good in my office, and we are just finishing it up to where I can move my desk into it.

On the other hand, the silver dragon Alocasia we picked up seems to be doing well. There is some slight new growth coming from the base of the plant. I am hoping that the area that I chose will be consistently humid enough for it. I know the lady mentioned that I should have a glass container for it to adjust, but I still haven’t gotten it (shame on me). I might get it tomorrow, there’s a 50% chance I will go get one tomorrow I promise.

Another thing that I am very excited to have my own office. We I re-did the floor again, then painted the walls. Well my girlfriend mainly painted the walls because of my burnt hand. But still, I kind of helped. I really want to get in by the end of next week. The original goal was the end of this week, but that is not happening.

The new office basically is an excuse to fill it up with plants. The room gets bright shaded sun from the sunrise until about mid day where it tapers off above the house. It will be perfect I think, then I will have an excuse to buy the big guy, and probably pair it with a Monstera.

I should probably wait because someone I know said they have to work on their Monstera and would propagate me a little one. I just don’t know if I am patient enough… But two Monsteras would be better than one.

If you don’t want to miss out on what I have to say, you can sign up for my email list where you can keep up to date. If I get too annoying you can always take yourself off the list as well.

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Thank you for reading and have a wonderful day,

-Plant Dummy

I got the Alocasia Silver Dragon

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Finally we have it. I had ordered it about two weeks ago. And then due to the snow, I was unable to pick it up because the nursery it was at wasn’t open. But after a quick drive, and talk to the nice lady who helped me choose the best one, it’s home.

Silver Dragon Alocasia – Plant Dummy

I asked the lady at the nursery which one she recommended out of probably 50 different ones. I am not particularly experienced with any Alocasia. Which in hind site, I probably should have been better prepared for what she had said.

The lady mentioned that even though this was slightly smaller than the rest of the other Alocasias. It was one that she would pick because of the amount of leaves, and the fresh growth. Which is the lighter green leaf. Another portion looks like it is growing in as well, which is something I am excited to see.

The lady did mention that I really need to keep the humidity up, and suggested a glass tube that would be able to go around the container. Think the beauty and the beast rose. She mentioned a place to pick it up, but I have yet to get it. For now, it lives in the bathroom.

Once I read up on this Alocasia, I may release a post about what I found is good types of care for this plant. I know the basics I think now. And in all honestly, from what I can tell it seems similar to orchid care. Medium shaded light, they like humidity, like even a little more than some orchids I believe. And then they also like air flow for their root system and to be in soil that is able to drain properly, to prevent the roots from sitting in water, and getting root rot.

However that is mainly off the top of my head from the conversation I made, and about 1 or 2 googles to make sure I was not killing it at a certain point. A much deeper delve into what the Alocasia needs to prosper is much needed.

If you want to keep up to date with the things that I post, you can enter your email. I am not going to spam you, and if you want off of it, it’s very easy.

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner and Mailchimp to receive marketing, updates, and other emails from the Plant Dummy. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time.

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Thank you for reading this short post about my day,

I have something in the works, hopefully for this week. I just want to make sure it is up to my standards,

-Plant Dummy

Building a Community

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I wanted to release something else about plants before I released this one. However I burned my hand over the weekend, and had this already typed, so I figured I would release this while I heal because I can’t type very well at the moment. I hope this is a good enough read from me for the weekend.

I think about Involving people more with Plant Dummy in some way is what currently is on my mind. Realizing that I love my plants, and other people love their plants is something that I think all of us have in common with one another. I don’t see why it couldn’t be a thing in some sort of context, but finding the right way of doing it is eluding me at the moment.

Never having built an online community, it makes me curious of the best ways to do so. I know that I want to be able to feature what people are excited about, in a way that other people will get excited about as well. What’s the point of sharing something that no one will see? At least that’s my perspective on that. Having a community that learns and you can see the progress or something that has helped them would be exciting to me.

One of the ideas that I have would be to feature someone’s plant on the front page for a week and on the Instagram. I love being able to share my posts on Instagram because it seems like the plant world can be so much more focused. Right now on the blog it seems like I am in an ocean of blogs trying to build my island or something. Which is kind of exciting to me because it has a lot of unknowns.

If you want to check out some more of my home pictures, and what I think looks awesome you can check out the Instagram as well

Click to check out my Instagram

If you are interested in seeing my list of easy succulents you can check it out here as well! https://plantdummy.com/2021/02/11/easy-care-succulents-that-look-great/

Anyways, I have been constantly doing research of different things that I could be doing, and improving on. Which honestly I won’t be able to genuinely tell for a long time and that is okay with me. But I think that this is a constant process, with an importance in sticking with it. Realizing that a lot of people fade out of the interest. I feel like if I start fading out of the interest in a particular area, I may slightly expand towards another. For me thinking of different possibilities is important to stay creative and share interesting content.

Again thank you for reading,

-Plant Dummy

Sometimes you just don’t know

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Obviously I am very new to this. But sometimes it surprises me what posts get views and what don’t. Or what posts get likes and what don’t. You may think you wrote the best yet, but it isn’t received as well as one that just came super easy to you.

It’s fun to try to see what people will like. Or maybe I am just bad at guessing. I just know I have been having fun trying to come up with ideas, and learning along the way. Sometimes it scares me though if someone who is really into plants looks at my blog and I get something wrong. That is why I try to always make a note of saying that if I got anything wrong, to please let me know.

This last article I wanted to be sure on the succulent names that I had so I looked in depth of the pictures to make sure that is what I had. But I still feel like there is a possibility that my Echeveria picture may be a slight variation of something else. Please let me know if I am wrong. I know it’s a stupid thing to worry about because it can just be changed and doesn’t hurt anyone.

My Echeveria succulent plant.
The Echeveria of Doubts

I guess we all have certain things that we worry about for little reason. Maybe it will change, maybe it won’t. But there is one thing that I got from that worry. It makes me more confident on the things I am able to write about because I don’t want to look dumb, and I don’t want to give the wrong information. So I try to research with resources that are trustworthy, or back up my ideas with other evidence of why.

That’s just my thought of the day. I am happy, I was able to write and use a lot of my own pictures today! I will hopefully be able to add more of my own in the future.

Thank you for reading!

-Plant Dummy

Who is Plant Dummy?

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I want give some sort of insight of who I am as a person. I understand that most people want to feel some sort of connection, or relation of who someone is behind the screen, to get a feel whether they like them or not.

Currently I am a full time college student studying business. I am a senior, who is very excited to work get further into the workforce (fingers crossed). I want to continue to build my skills when it comes to creativity, writing, and design. Creating something that is completely mine, being able to see where I started and how to improve upon it will help my editorial skills, as well as decision skills on what I think people may want or need to learn as I learn it myself.

I thought of creating of a blog a while back (at least couple of years ago) but never really deciding to take the plunge. It honestly was/is scary to me. Like what if I did it wrong, or people didn’t like me. Deciding that in my mind there was never going to be a better opportunity to do it then right now is what got me to go forward. Putting something out there that is mine, that I think would be interesting and useful for other people was the only think my mind should have been focusing on rather than the fear of failing something I never attempted.

Creating something that is unique is important to me. Having something have my personality as well as voice means a lot to me. There lot of different blogs that I see that come across as all knowing, or they are the keepers of what is right in the plant world. Plus I just like plants! Here’s one one of our (what I believe to be) White Nerve plants. Featuring a Burro’s tail peaking out in the back.

White Nerve Plant – PlantDummy

It is important to me to get information that is accurate across to the reader, however I won’t pretend like I solely know the exact truths and ways. Doing my due diligence on finding sources that are legitimate is one of my main goals.

A lot of people churn and burn blog posts to get the maximum volume. I really want to try to avoid that unless there is a part in a blog that I think needs a particular spotlight. I want to focus on quality rather than rehashing old ideas.

I realized that that I just need to do it if I think it, and just go for it. I obviously am not perfect, but I would regret not doing something like this, and building upon my skills, and knowledge that I am able to spread while learning myself. This blog may adopt things here and there that I think will add to the quality. Who knows, I may even add certain extra types of things that I enjoy writing about. Maybe even include my opinion on certain things, or just my process of how the blog is going, or what I plan to be working on in the future.

I will be back and write updates like this because I think people may want to see the me evolve and my thought process on things. Even if it is just a couple people, I think it would be good for me to be able to just have a voice for someone who may want to listen.

Thank you for reading, and as always. If you have any suggestions or things that you want to hear about please let me know. I really do take your considerations into play when I decide what I am going to write about.