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Happy Plants, Happy You: A Plant-Care & Self-Care Guide for the Modern Houseplant Parent

Happy Plants, Happy You: A Plant-Care & Self-Care Guide for the Modern Houseplant Parent

Current price: $26.99
Publication Date: September 5th, 2023
Publisher:
Cool Springs Press
ISBN:
9780760379509
Pages:
176
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Description

In Happy Plants, Happy You, author Kamili Bell Hill of @PlantBlerd shows you that spending quality time with your plants is spending quality time with yourself.

Houseplants are so much more than a living decorative accent for your home or a relaxing hobby, and caring for houseplants should not be a mindless task. Instead, it’s an opportunity to check in with yourself as you check in with your plants. You’ll learn how houseplants can help you avoid burnout and bring a healthy focus to your own self-care. As it turns out, when you tend to your houseplants, you’re also tending to yourself. 

Houseplants have a lot of lessons to teach about relationships and the importance of a little give and take, including how to focus on the ones who love you back and how—like getting rid of a dead leaf or a mealybug—sometimes you gotta cut bait and bail on relationships that are bringing you down. Author Kamili Bell Hill used houseplants to exit the stress highway that was overtaking her life and she knows they can do the same for you. 

Easy houseplant-care tips to help build your confidence in growing, combined with wise and witty words on everything from managing “devil-spawn fungus gnats” to making your houseplant leaves shine like the top of the Chrysler Building, Happy Plants, Happy You is part self-exploration, part houseplant handbook. In a nutshell, it’s a plant-based roadmap to a happier you. 

You’ll get the lowdown on:
 

  • How to choose the right plants for you as a person, not just for your growing conditions
  • Advice on avoiding “vampire relationships” with plants (and people!) that suck you dry
  • A wish list of the best tools for houseplant parents 
  • How to date several plants before settling on the best ones for you
  • The art of letting go of things that aren’t thriving
  • Giving up on the illusion of control—and being totally okay with it

As your plants grow, you will too. Houseplants are a guilt-free path to peace, and the result of stepping into an intentional plant-care/self-care routine will be happy plants and a happy you.

About the Author

Kamili Bell Hill combines her love of plants and design to curate a brand and community known as PlantBlerd where she partners beautiful houseplants with simple care information and words of encouragement, using engaging language and humor that is widely relatable. PlantBlerd serves as both a style and a growing guide. After noticing a lack of social media platforms highlighting houseplant collectors that look like her, she established BlackPeople.wPlants which features Black houseplant collectors from around the world. Kamili is a voracious reader, a lover of the arts, and a certified Potter Head (as in Harry Potter). She put a career in law on hold to pursue her true passion of interior design and quickly realized the important role plants play in her clients’ designs.

Praise for Happy Plants, Happy You: A Plant-Care & Self-Care Guide for the Modern Houseplant Parent

"Kamili rediscovers the many adventures of indoor jungle lushness, introduces the restorative rejuvenation of bringing nature into our homes, dives into the plethora of life lessons our plants can offer us, and guides readers on a viridescent journey so that they, too, can reconnect with nature. From one Black plant nerd to another, Kamili, thank you for sharing your magic and your story with us so generously."—@plantkween

“Okay, talk about a game changer! Plant mom-ing should feel refreshing, not daunting. From finally figuring out what I’ve been doing wrong to learning alternative ways to pamper my plant babies beyond watering them, this book is filled with the kind of a-ha! moments that give me the clarity and confidence to find my way to plant parent peace.”—Ashley Renne Nsonwu of @heyashleyrenne and author of The Vegan Baby Cookbook and Guide

"Happy Plants, Happy You is the much-needed fresh take on the world of plants and gardening. Combining interior design, self-care, and plant care tips that you can trust, Kamili brings her unique sense of humor, style, and design sensibility to this fun and informative book. Kamili's extensive experience and endearing personality will have readers walking away both more confident in their own plant parenthood journey and feeling like they've made a new friend. This is a must-add to any plant lover's collection."—Gloria Alamrew, culture writer and critic

“Happy Plants Happy You is a beautiful balance of visuals and helpful text detailing a unique perspective from a plant lover.  As a plant enthusiast myself, this is such a wonderful visual treat, and I enjoyed every page.”—Cyril from Cyril’s Urban Jungle, @cyrilcybernated

“A joy to read! Combining plant care with self-care, this beautiful book is full of practical tips – for both you and your plants.”—Roos from @plantwithroos

“Kamili calls out our challenging relationship with hustle culture and invites us to learn to love on ourselves by utilizing the healing of houseplants. She then wraps her arms around us with a beginner-friendly guide to helping your plants flourish. I can say Happy Plants, Happy You is properly named!”—Dominique Edouard of @domslittlegarden

“Prepare to feel inspired after reading Kamili's all-too-relatable book illustrating how the plant hobby offers a respite from the burnout of hustle culture. This book is perfect for those looking to take their plant care more seriously and take their lives more lightheartedly." ­—Lindsay of alltheplantbabies.com

“I can’t ‘leaf’ this book alone! Happy Plants, Happy You has the perfect combination of plant care, anecdotal wit, and New Yorker realness from the most zealous plant fiend I know. Kamili hilariously combines life and plant advice in the style that her social media following has come to love her for. I LOLed for real and added some new tips to my plant AND self-care routine.”—Colah B. Tawkin, host of the Black in the Garden podcast

“Happy Plants, Happy You does a great job illustrating the life of a plant parent. Kamili really brings readers in by sharing personal accounts around her successes and failures with plants. A nice bonus was how the book brilliantly demonstrates leading a life of intentionality and pursuing things that make you passionate with statements like "why do we stop daydreaming at a certain age." There are also a wealth of accessible plant care tips and tricks featured so that plant people of all experience levels have practical knowledge to take with them as they continue their plant parenthood journey.”—Tyler from @thatplantguy_ty

"A fun, inventive, and worthwhile addition to any library and for all sorts of plant parents. This is much more than a book about caring for houseplants."—Sarah Filiberto, Library Journal

"This book takes plant life to the next level. The relationship Kamili Hill has with plants is equal to what goes into her personal life."—Washington Gardener

"Connecting your lifestyle with a mixture of caring for plants is genuinely brilliant, especially connecting it to loving your plants is loving yourself."—Budget Earth

"Happy Plants, Happy You is an encouraging companion to the world of houseplants that will set you on a sure path to an indoor paradise."—The American Gardener