About the site
A notebook about keeping ornamental plants alive indoors
Leaf & Loam started as a text file of things that went wrong. Most plant advice online is written to fill a page; this is written to answer the question you actually had when you searched for it.
Photo: Anthurium andraeanum by Taken by Fanghong · CC BY 2.5 · via Wikimedia Commons
How the guides are written
Every article starts from a question that came up in practice — a plant that stretched, a pot that never dried, a pest that kept coming back. The guide is then written to answer that question in the order someone actually needs it: identify the problem, understand the cause, fix it, prevent it.
Where a claim is contested — the drainage layer, air-purifying houseplants, misting for humidity — the article says so plainly rather than repeating the received wisdom. Where the honest answer is “it depends”, the article says what it depends on instead of picking a number at random.
Nothing here is sponsored, and no article is written to a keyword brief. If a plant is a bad choice for most homes, the guide says that.
What you will find
Indoor Plants4
Species guides for plants that live under a roof
Bonsai3
Small trees, long timelines
Succulents & Cacti3
Drought-adapted plants and the ways we drown them
Plant Care4
The habits that apply to almost every pot
Pests & Diseases3
Identify it before you spray anything
Soil & Potting3
Most plant problems start below the surface
Comparisons4
Two plants enter, one goes on your shelf
Who writes it
Lan Nguyen
Balcony grower & founding editor
Lan has kept ornamental plants on a 12 m² apartment balcony for eight years, mostly tropical foliage and small-scale bonsai. She writes the care and comparison guides here, and has killed enough plants to be specific about how.
Marcus Hale
Contributor — soil & propagation
Marcus spent six years in a wholesale nursery mixing media by the cubic metre before moving to container growing at home. He covers potting mixes, repotting and the unglamorous half of plant care.
A note on scope
This is growing information from experience and published horticultural sources, not professional advice. Many popular houseplants are toxic to cats and dogs — check a veterinary source before bringing one home, and contact a vet immediately if a pet has chewed a plant. For plant disease in a commercial or agricultural setting, talk to a local extension service rather than a blog.
Photography
All photography on the site is freely licensed and sourced from Wikimedia Commons, with the photographer and licence credited beneath each image. The full list is on the photo credits page.