Course · Plants & hobbies

The Green Windowsill: Houseplants Without Casualties

Light, watering, soil and repotting, diagnosing problems from photos, hard-to-kill plants, and propagation — how to grow greenery at home instead of killing it.

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PepelenCourse author

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Light: how to read your window

Lesson 1. Window directions and how much light your home really gets

9 exercises · Learn to judge how much light a spot gets from the direction its window faces and its distance from the window, and understand why light is a plant's “food.”

Lesson 2. Matching plants to the light and reading the signs of too little light

8 exercises · Understand how a plant itself tells you it's getting too little or too much light, and choose plants for the light you really have, not the other way around.

Water: overwatering, the #1 killer

Lesson 1. Why overwatering is worse than drought

8 exercises · Understand how overwatering kills (roots suffocate without oxygen) and why most plants “loved to death” die precisely from too much water.

Lesson 2. When and how much to water, really

8 exercises · Master watering “by the soil, not by the schedule”: check moisture with your finger, water thoroughly and pour off the excess.

Soil and pots: drainage, potting mix, repotting

Lesson 1. Pots and drainage: water has to drain away

7 exercises · Understand why a drainage hole is a must, how to choose a pot's size and material, and when a drainage layer is (and isn't) needed.

Lesson 2. Potting mix and stress-free repotting

8 exercises · Understand why a plant needs a loose potting mix, when and how to repot, and which techniques reduce repotting stress.

Diagnosis from photos: reading the signs

Lesson 1. Yellow leaves, rot and the logic of diagnosis

9 exercises · Learn to tell whether yellowing comes from overwatering, drought, lack of light or natural aging, and make a diagnosis from all the signs together.

Lesson 2. Pests: who lives on your plants

8 exercises · Recognize the main houseplant pests by the traces they leave (fine webbing, white cottony clumps, a sticky residue) and know the basic ways to fight them.

Easy champions: 10 unkillable plants

Lesson 1. Meet the unkillable ten

8 exercises · Remember the 10 toughest houseplants to start with and understand exactly how each one forgives a beginner's mistakes.

Lesson 2. What plants need: matching the care

7 exercises · Connect a plant's type with its needs (succulent — infrequent watering and bright light; shade-tolerant — little light, moderate watering) and choose a plant to fit your conditions.

Propagation: cuttings and “babies”

Lesson 1. Cuttings: a new plant from a small piece

8 exercises · Understand how to propagate plants from stem and leaf cuttings, and what conditions they need to root.

Lesson 2. “Babies,” air layering, and division

7 exercises · Master propagating from ready-made “babies” (spider plant), air layering, and dividing a clump when repotting.

Final review: putting it all together

Lesson 1. The “light — water — roots” system in action

8 exercises · Bring the whole course together into one algorithm for diagnosis and care, and test yourself on cases that put it all together.