About Plant Trooper
“I am not an expert.
I am just someone who keeps showing up.”
Some people find their way to gardening through books, or courses, or a perfectly curated Pinterest board.
I found mine through my aunt.
She had plants everywhere — in beautiful porcelain pots, blue and white, red and white, the kind that made even a cactus look like it belonged in a painting. Nothing generic. Everything considered. I used to watch her tend to them and think: I want that. Not just the plants. The relationship with them.
That was a long time ago. Now I have my own space, my own garden, two kids under ten, a husband, a full-time job, and approximately zero spare hours in the day. My garden is messy. The neighbour’s cats use it as a litter box, which I will not pretend to be calm about. It gets cold in Auckland winter and sometimes I give up for a while.
And yet the garden keeps calling me back.
I have a Ficus benjamina on my living room floor that I have kept alive and thriving since 2017. It is five foot five — exactly my height. I grew a chrysanthemum and dahlia patch in 2018 that was genuinely, properly beautiful. I have killed every fern I have ever owned — asparagus, bird’s nest, maidenhair, the lot — and I keep trying anyway.
That is what Plant Trooper is.
It is not a blog about perfect gardens. It is a blog for people who show up tired, lose steam sometimes, kill things occasionally, and keep going anyway. I started it because I wanted somewhere to share what I’ve learned — slowly, imperfectly, over years of actual dirt under my fingernails. I wanted to find people who love plants the way I do: not as an aesthetic, but as a quiet thing that keeps you grounded when everything else is loud.
If your garden doesn’t look like the photos, you’re in the right place.
If you’ve killed a fern, welcome. I’ve killed several.
Still growing.
— Jahnavi
Why this exists
You are not alone in the mud.
Gardening can feel lonely when yours doesn’t look like everyone else’s. This is the corner of the internet for the rest of us — the messy gardens, the failed ferns, the still-trying. Join The Troopers and get honest gardening straight to your inbox.