Poking a Finger into the Soil of Other People's Plants

This winter has caused havoc on Marash Girl's plants.  Keeping the house at a cool 62 or 64, Marash Girl and her plants are happy; not so her family, and so the heat gets cranked up to 68 and 70 and the plants (not to mention Marash Girl) start wilting.  Marash Girl always wondered why, with so little sun, her plants could survive; the answer was, not over watering.  But then, how do you know?  She was unaware of the fact that, as she walks through her house, should she pass a plant, she surreptitiously pokes a finger into the soil to determine whether or not the plant is ready for another drink, and in doing so, she brushes the plant leaves with her arm.  This habit became so ingrained, that one day, she found herself in someone else's house, surreptitiously putting her finger into their plants' soil (and finding it far too dry)!  Yikes.  She hopes she wasn't discovered.  The audacity!

But then again, perhaps it isn't just the water, but the brush with a living creature on a regular basis that keeps the plants alive and healthy.  After all, in the wild, plants are brushed by the wind, by birds and fox, cats and coyotes . . .  People and plants cannot live by water alone!