Before coming to Amherst, I never had plants of my own. It wasn’t that I never wanted to take care of plants, but rather I never really thought about it. However, when I got to Amherst, there were a ton of events around the beginning of the year in which the school provided succulents for students to take for free to their dorms, and there were events held by the Community Development Coordinators in certain residence halls that offered free plants like bamboo and cacti, though these quickly ran out. I’m friends with the CA, Community Advisor, of James Hall’s first floor, and he hosted an event where he acquired succulents and pots with the funding provided by the college for residential life events to let us pot the succulents ourselves, and that’s where I got the succulents that I take care of today. He even brought paints for us to decorate our pots with, and pictured below is my Nope movie-inspired pot. My friend decided to paint Kirbys on their succulent pot, and my other friend painted flying sheep on her succulent pot.
Since the plants given are low-maintenance, it’s not too difficult to forget to water them about once or twice a week. However, the important part to consider is light. I have some friends who don’t get great lighting in terms of natural sunlight, which is why their plants have struggled a bit, but thankfully, I get plenty of sunlight, so my plants have been thriving on my windowsill. Also, since the plants are small, if they get knocked over by the wind blowing through open windows or just human clumsiness, the mess isn’t too hard to clean up.
Another difficult barrier to consider when taking care of plants at Amherst is what to do with them over the break. Since I stayed during Thanksgiving break, I was able to help take care of my friend’s plants when she left during break. Then, since I came back to California during winter break and January term, my friend took care of my plants because she stayed during January term for ACEMS training, the training that new members of our student-run emergency medical services undergo.
Having plants is a great way to decorate your dorm room. While I’m someone who loves cluttering my walls with posters and fairy lights, I also really enjoy having plants as decor as it’s nice to add a bit of nature among all my decorations. Like many other people, I keep my plants on my windowsill, but I know other people have plants on their desks and sometimes even stick hooks onto their ceilings to hang the plants. Again, it depends heavily on the natural lighting that the room gets and where the plants can be placed to receive the optimal amount of sunlight. I’m really glad that I can be a proud plant parent at Amherst College, and I hope to make sure that my plants stay happy and healthy throughout the rest of my years here.