Plants are quickly becoming an essential part of decor in homes, but many people opt to use synthetic plants instead of real ones. While synthetic plants require no maintenance and can even look real, they just don’t provide the same benefits as real plants— benefits you may not have even realized were possible. When it comes to indoor plants, you can have a few plants here and there, or you can plant an indoor garden.
What is an indoor garden?
Like the name suggests, an indoor garden is a garden indoors. You can designate any size you deem necessary for your garden, just as long as your plants can get adequate sunlight. You may even need special growing lights to help your plants thrive inside.
Indoor gardens also reduce the need of having to use pesticides and herbicides, which contain harmful chemicals that have detrimental effects on your health and the environment. If indoor gardening may be a little too much, don’t worry— you can still reap the benefits of having one or two potted plants situated throughout your home.
1. Plants Improve Indoor Air Quality
Indoor air quality refers to the quality of the air inside your home. This is probably the number one reason more people are putting live plants in homes and office spaces. We all know that there are many outdoor pollutants, but there are indoor pollutants as well. Poor ventilation, humidity levels, burning fires in fireplaces, and even cooking can affect indoor air quality.
Just like trees can filter pollutants in the air outside, having a few plants inside your home can filter pollutants in the air indoors. This happens through a process called phytoremediation, where plants reduce the amount of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that can linger in the air. Succulents are among the most popular plants used to enhance indoor air quality. The spider plant and snake plant are especially effective in cleansing the air of formaldehyde.
2. Plants Are Stress Relievers
This applies to both psychological and physiological stress. Some people like to go away for the weekend after a long week of work to enjoy activities such as hiking, camping, or to just relax by a beach. All of these activities have one thing in common: nature. Many people love to just “get away from it all” and spend time in natural environments. This is why there’s no surprise that indoor plants would have the same calming effect.
Aromatic plants, known for being the source of essential oils, have calming effects too. Plants like eucalyptus and lavender are known for their soothing properties, both mentally and physically. This can also keep you from having to light candles, which can also affect indoor air quality.
3. Plants Enhance Decor
Yes, fake plants can achieve this too, but there’s just something about real, live plants that brightens up a room. The good thing is that just about every type of style can incorporate the use of a live plant.
The Boho Style is probably the most popular decor style to use plants. You can’t go wrong with small, cute succulents, or larger plants like the ever-popular fiddle leaf fig. The Farmhouse Style is another decor style that incorporates a variety of plants.
4. You get to care for a living being
You can ask the parents of children and pets and you’ll probably get the same answer: It’s a lot of work, but it’s worth it. There’s nothing like caring for a living creature, although plants require the least maintenance. They, in certain ways, thrive on their own, but you shouldn’t completely ignore them. Some require more attention than others, but you still get a great sense of accomplishment from caring for them.
These are just a few of the reasons you should consider live plants over synthetic ones. Who knows, maybe you’ll discover that you love plants so much that you’ll want to start an indoor and outdoor garden!