Interior Gardening Provides Benefits and Plant Awareness
Owning a plant and having to care for it may seem like a tedious chore, but houseplants offer benefits to a home and make aesthetically pleasing additions to a room.
Deborah Singer, local business owner of Deborah’s Garden Market, loves plants and the intangible qualities they bring to a room.
“Besides the beauty they can offer as living things, I find plants therapeutic to be around, they can even clear the air we breathe and make it easier to sleep,” Singer said.
To expand on this idea, WHS Science Dept. member and botany teacher, Troy Worth, champions this air purification.
“Plants do a great job of removing phenol compounds from the air that are caused by plastics and electronics,” Worth said.
Additionally, WHS environmental teacher and avid gardener, Shelly Silvaggi, speaks to plants’ ability to absorb carbon dioxide from our atmosphere and to clean the air.
If these benefits seem appealing, people may still be confused as to what plants to purchase initially.
Singer said the easiest plants to start growing are succulents
“Succulents are also perfect plants to take to college. They grow slow, you can buy small,
and you can create different combinations of them in dishes; the worst you can do is over- water them,” Singer said.
Once a plant is purchased, the next, most challenging, step is looking after them.
According to Singer, it is common for starters to over- water plants and to have improper amounts of sunlight.
Singer recommended that after finding a spot with proper lighting for plants and figuring out how often they need
watered, the best move is to get plants on a schedule.
“…If a plant doesn’t seem healthy, lift it out and look at the roots; you want white fleshy roots. If roots are soft and mushy, they are getting too much water, and if they are brittle, they’re dry,” Singer said.
Plants can potentially repel insects, improve air quality, and bring life into a house.
With some practice and care, owning a houseplant may provide a host of benefits.
