About
We're the friend who tells you the truth about your plant
The Leafling started because plant advice online is either written for people who already own a greenhouse, or so hedged and padded that you finish the article still not knowing how often to water the thing.
Most houseplants die for one of about five reasons, and overwatering is four of them. Nobody wants to say that plainly, because it sounds like blame. It isn't blame. It's the most useful sentence in the whole hobby, and once you've heard it the black thumb tends to disappear.
So that's what we do here. Plain-English care guides, honest roundups, and cozy-home ideas for renters and small spaces. Written for the person who bought three plants, killed one, and is quietly worried about the other two.
“Honestly? You're overwatering it. That's the only reason it's dying.”
What we believe
No jargon
If a word needs a glossary, we use a different word. Nobody should need botanical Latin to keep a pothos alive.
No guilt
You are not bad at this. You were given a plant with a plastic tag that said "water weekly" and no other information.
No gatekeeping
Supermarket plants count. Plastic nursery pots count. A rented flat with two windows counts.
No filler
The answer goes at the top of the article, not after nine hundred words on the history of the species.
How we make money
Openly, and in three ways. Some product links are affiliate links, which pay us a small commission when you buy — at no extra cost to you. We sell our own printables and guides. And in time the site will carry display advertising. The full disclosure has the detail.
What none of that changes is which plants we recommend. If the best pot for a forgetful person is the cheap one, we say so. A recommendation you can't trust is worth nothing to either of us.
Where we're heading
Evergreen guides, cross-linked so one question leads naturally to the next. A Pinterest presence that sends people to the guide they actually needed. An email list with a genuinely useful free cheat sheet at the front of it.
Slowly, in honest thirty-minute increments, into something that's still useful in five years.
Who writes this
Hannah
Founder & lead writer
Writes from a rented one-bedroom flat with two north-facing windows and a radiator that ruins everything on the sill above it. Twenty-odd plants, several of them on their second life — so the care advice here comes from rooms that are worse than yours.
Get the one-page cheat sheet
Light, water and the three early warning signs, for the twelve most common houseplants. Free, printable, no account.
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