The Ficus That Wanted a Drink

I bought a big weeping fig in Cyprus for a very practical reason: to hide from my neighbours.

I like sunbathing on my balcony, but the neighbouring buildings are pretty close. I wanted a bit of privacy, preferably something green. That's how the ficus arrived.

The balcony felt cosier with the ficus. And the neighbours couldn't see me anymore.

Then, in spring 2026, it started losing leaves.

Its leaves turned yellow and fell off in alarming numbers. I tried to work out what was wrong. Too much sun? Wind? Overwatering? Not enough fertiliser?

In March, I was giving it about a litre of water at a time, occasionally with fertiliser. It just kept getting worse.

The funny part is that overwatering was one of my main theories. I genuinely worried that I was drowning a huge tree with one litre of water.

Eventually, I tried the opposite: four to six litres once a week.

And the ficus came back to life.

The leaves stopped dropping and the tree turned green again. Looks like it simply wasn't getting enough water.

I spent months looking for a complicated explanation. Turns out I just wasn't watering it enough.

These days I do a little gardening at weekends. The ficus is growing, the balcony is green again, and I can sunbathe in peace.