If you follow my blog (and I hope you do – it’s nice to have you here), you know I have a lot of houseplants. Over 300 of them. Watering all of them, and keeping track of which ones have been watered (and when) could be a challenge. But… I have a system that works great for me, and I thought you might find it helpful for your houseplants as well.
In this article, I’ll share my system with you – how it works, and how you can use it. I’ll also share links to the document I created, so you can use it too.
How I Keep Track of Houseplant Watering Dates
Because I have so many houseplants, and because they have different needs, I rarely water them all on the same day. Instead, I water my plants in zones.
For example, one day I might water all the plants in one area of our home, and then another day in another area, and so on. By using zones, I’m not watering plants for 4-hours at a crack – although I could certainly choose to do that, and sometimes I do.
To keep track of the zones and the watering dates, I created a spreadsheet (it’s that computer geek in me). It’s actually a really simple tool, and extremely effective. I just enter the dates when I water each zone. This record helps me to keep track so I can be sure to avoid overwatering or underwatering. (See tips below).
I wanted to make this spreadsheet accessible wherever I am, whatever I’m doing. So, I use the iCloud with my iPhone and my Windows computer to keep the spreadsheet in sync, and available on all my devices. It’s pretty slick!
Here’s a screenshot of the Excel spreadsheet I created (click image to enlarge). As you can see in this image, I’ve named each zone in our house and that name is at the top of each column in the spreadsheet. When I water plants in a zone, I simply type the date into the rows beneath the monthly headings (shaded green). There are five rows beneath each month, so plenty of space if watering once a week.
Here’s what this spreadsheet looks like with the dates filled in. Notice that I included thumbnails of each monthly calendar at the top of the spreadsheet. This helps me to visually see the days between watering (yeah, I’m also a very visual person and I find it helpful).
Accessing the Spreadsheet From Any Device
Because I wanted to have this information available to me on my iPhone, iPad, and various computers in our home, I save the spreadsheet to the iCloud and can then access it from everywhere. Here’s how.
- On a Windows Computer Using Excel – Install the free iCloud Drive App on any (and all) computers that you want to access the spreadsheet on. You can then launch Excel and open the spreadsheet from the iCloud Drive. Just make sure to save your Excel file to the iCloud Drive when saving it (the iCloud Drive is similar to any other drive or storage device you have on your computer).
- On a Windows Computer and/or an Android Phone Using Google Sheets – If you don’t have Excel on your computer, or if you have an Android phone, you can use Google Sheets instead. Google Sheets is free to use, and there is also a Google Sheets App you can install on your iPhone or iPad in order to access your spreadsheet, or a Google Sheets for Android App that you can use on an Android phone or tablet.
- On an iPhone or iPad – Make sure your iPhone or iPad has the Numbers App installed – this app is installed on these devices from the factory, so unless you’ve deleted them, they should still be there. To open your Excel spreadsheet on your device, go to the Files App on your phone, then tap on the Excel file. This opens the spreadsheet in the Numbers App. The spreadsheet is in Reading View when you first open it. You can tap the Edit button to actually edit the spreadsheet.
TIP: If you edited the file in Excel, make sure you save it in Excel before opening it on your phone to ensure you’re working with the latest version of the file.
Houseplant Watering Log Spreadsheet You Can Use
I made this spreadsheet available for you to use in several ways:
- Excel Spreadsheet – Just click Excel Spreadsheet to save this file (the file can be used on computers or iPhones)
- Google Sheet – Click Google Sheet to open this file as a template that you can fill in and use with your data (this file can be used on computers or Android phones or iPhones)
- PDF Printable – Click Houseplant Watering Log to download and print a PDF document that you can fill-in by hand.
Additional Tips
- Group ‘Similar Needs’ Plants Together in One Zone – While the plants in our home are thought of as pieces of our home decor (versus having all plants together in one area on shelves), I try to place plants with similar watering needs together in the same zones when possible. For example, all the plants that need a lot of water are in my office. I’m in my office on a daily basis, so it’s very easy for me to water the plants there more frequently. There’s also a bathroom right across the hall for easy water access. No matter how you display your plants, you can create zones for watering them.
- Always Check Your Plants Before Watering – Of course, having a log of watering dates is helpful, but I only use this log as a record, not as a watering schedule. When it comes to watering my plants, I don’t water them on a strict schedule. Instead, I always check the health of each plant in each zone to make sure they need water, and then I water accordingly (more water for some, less water for others). For more tips about watering plants, check out ‘How to Water Houseplants for Best Indoor Growth‘.
- Set Reminders on Your Phone – While I don’t think you have to have a strict watering schedule, once you see a pattern of watering dates in your spreadsheet, you could set reminders on your phone to alert you of upcoming potential watering dates. I just say “Hey Siri, remind me to water main level plants on May 24th” and voilà, just like that, I have a reminder waiting for me.
I hope you’ve found this helpful! If you have any tips or suggestions, please leave a comment below and let’s chat!
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