Gardening Health through gardening Houseplants

Plants Do That … Where We Live

Indoor plants where we live, learn, heal and work have far-reaching positive effects on our well-being and indoor environment, according to a report from the National Initiative for Consumer Horticulture (NICH).

According to scientific research, plants clean indoor air, stabilize carbon dioxide and create comfortable ambient air humidity. Plants also boost healing, happiness, and productivity.

  • Rooms with plants have fewer pollutants like VOCs (volatile organic compounds).
  • Plants in our homes increase room humidity by 10%.
  • Plants remove up to 90% of formaldehyde in a room.

“When plants are around, students are just smarter and pay more attention,” says Dr. Charlie Hall, Ellison Endowed Chair in International Floriculture and Professor, Texas A&M University.

This infographic was provided by the National Initiative for Consumer Horticulture (NICH), a consortium of industry leaders who are promoting the benefits and value of horticulture. NICH brings together academia, government, industry, and nonprofits to cultivate the growth and development of a healthy world through landscapes, gardens, and plants—indoors and out, and to get 90 percent of U.S. households gardening by 2025.

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Garden writer and blogger, author of 65 gardening books, lecturer and communicator, the Laidback Gardener, Larry Hodgson, passed away in October 2022. Known for his great generosity, his thoroughness and his sense of humor, he reached several generations of amateur and professional gardeners over his 40-year career. Thanks to his son, Mathieu Hodgson, and a team of contributors, laidbackgardener.blog will continue its mission of demystifying gardening and making it more accessible to all.

6 comments on “Plants Do That … Where We Live

  1. I agree that plants have huge benefits for human health! This is especially noticeable in winter when there is little vegetation on the street and dust is felt! But of course it is better to use plants at home – they improve the air environment! It’s like drawing https://drawnbyhislight.com how to draw easily and simply helps young children develop and plants take care of our health!

  2. Antonio Sandstrom

    Until recently I also didn’t believe that plants can do so much, but now after buying a college paper here https://papersowl.com/buy-college-papers I understand how important plants are in our lives, even our permanent teacher used to say that in our classroom we need some plants, and we didn’t believe him; now in our classroom there are many flowers that please our eyes and clean our air. Besides this I have to say thanks to Papersowl for making such a good writing, now our whole school started to buy after reading in front of everyone this wonderful writing, for every room a flower and this one even looks better.

  3. Deborah Ratliff

    Unfortunately my outside plants brought tiny flies in the house when I brought them in for the winter

  4. I listen to this podcast to help me go to sleep. This wonderful story is about plants missing the places they grew up. It’s lovely – I hope you enjoy it…

    http://www.bordersofsleep.com/search?q=rehoming

  5. Tena van Andel

    If I may, I would like to expand on the idea of houseplants as clean air workers. Yes, houseplants remove toxins from the air. This was proven by Dr. Wolverton at NASA. I, who love houseplants was dismayed to learn that this whole clean air plants idea is a bit of a myth. Since the very famous much touted study (Dr. Wolverton was even on Merv Griffin!), more studies have been done and although it’s true houseplants filter VOCs, you would need not 6-8 plants, but 600-800 plants!! And, cleansing is much more effective if the plants are in some sort of biofiltration system as the soil/carbon/media is part of the toxin removal. Our best bet going forward is living walls – lots of plants in a biofiltration system. Check out -https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/03/indoor-plants-clean-air-best-none-them/584509/ ,https://www.cleanairgardening.com/do-houseplants-clean-air/ – and many other articles.
    Thankfully, nobody has ever disproved that houseplants make us happy!

  6. I didn’t know that plants do all of the above. I do know that plants in my home make me happy, especially when they are growing well!

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