Have you ever noticed that whenever people talk about plants, it’s always about something positive? The simple activity of taking care of a plant or planting a sapling is always related to some kind of positive talk. There is a very good reason that we witness this trend. Plants really do have some very special positive qualities and almost no negative ones. There are some positive qualities that everyone knows about but some useful characteristics are still unknown to many of us. You might not know exactly how beneficial it is to have plants at home apart from the fact that they always look good.
Research on the topic of nurturing plants at home has shed light on some amazing facts about the effect of plants on us and on the environment. Let’s have a look at some of the advantages uncovered by the research.
Air purification
You must have heard from people that plants can purify the air in your house. Although they mostly only referred to producing oxygen and using up the carbon dioxide. There are other ways that plants actually purify the air. The air has certain toxins in it like benzene and formaldehyde which research shows are cleaned up by the plants. Getting rid of such toxins from the air can reduce the risk of lung cancer in kids by 6% and increase the chances of avoiding heart diseases by 74%. Of course, different kinds of plants remove different toxins, and the amount of toxic air purified also depends on the size and number of plants. A plant bigger in size would be able to remove a lot more toxin from the air in a given amount of time compared to a smaller plant of the same variety. Similarly having more plants in a room would result in faster air purification. So the ideal number of plants in your room should be around 7-8 for best results.
Aesthetics
According to the statistics of some researches, it was noted that more than 60% of households have plants in their homes but only 20% actually knew about the health and environmental benefits of having them. The major reason for people having plants in their houses is aesthetics. Plants always make a place look better. They add freshness and ambiance to the aesthetics of a room. A lot of interior designers incorporate creepers and other indoor plants to enhance the beauty of a place. Enhancing the aesthetics of your home ultimately has added health and mental benefits that we will also discuss.
Mental health
We have already discussed how aesthetics boost positivity in you so what actual mental health benefits does positivity actually provide? It is a rather long list with important benefits like stress release, fighting ADHD, reducing anxiety, avoiding depression, and many more. Spending time around components of nature triggers stress release in our brains. A similar theory also applies to the reduction of anxiety. These are linked with the fact that having plants around you can reduce your heart rate to normal and controls blood pressure. The fact that you feel better walking in a park than walking in an urbanized concrete jungle is a practical example of nature treating depression. Similar studies have shown people coping better with ADHD when they have plants around them at home. This is the reason why you will usually find plants in a hospital next to a patient’s beds.
Save water
Plants need to be watered so you must be thinking how will they actually end up saving water? Well for starters, a lot of the water that you use for cooking and washing your vegetables can be given to the plants. You don’t need to give them fresh water all the time. Another way to save water is to adopt aquaponics. So if you have an aquarium at home then Aquaponics helps to save water by rotating the water between the aquarium and plants. It is a system where plants and fish replenish the water for each other. Experts at https://farmingaquaponics.com/ did some research and found that aquaponics ends up saving almost 75% of the water that would be used in changing the water in the fish tank and watering the plants. Other practices like nurturing plants that need less water can end up saving water and reducing your water bill as well.
Feel healthier
Feeling healthier is just a feeling that comes when you do not experience things like lethargy and irritation. It does not imply direct health benefits as feeling lazy is not exactly being physically ill. The humidity and oxygen released by plants do much more than just keeping diseases and ailments away. It actually enhances your lifestyle by providing the right amount of humidity to the air to help avoid lethargy. Similarly, the plants help keep the dust level in the air to a minimum which keeps you away from an irritable nose and skin.
Horticulture Treatment
Horticulture treatment is basically a treatment that involves gardening or simply raising some plants. It basically focuses on things like dementia and schizophrenia. A study showed that people who participated in gardening or even raising some desk plants had 36% fewer chances of suffering from dementia. The simple procedure of caring for a plant and watching it grow can instill a sense of responsibility and achievement. Pruning and watering the plant on a regular basis can help you in maintaining other routines as well.
Boost creativity
Researchers are still trying to find the exact reasons for how plants around you boost your creativity but they are convinced it does. Some of the most creative ideas of science have been derived by nature. A study on this topic at the University of Minnesota showed that artists came up with better ideas when they were surrounded by plants rather than when they were sitting in a dull room devoid of plants and flowers.
It is true that change starts at home and with the world fighting against deforestation and promoting the planting of more trees you can start your contribution by making your house greener. Apart from the health and mental benefits plants at home can also help you in contributing to worldly issues like global warming and water scarcity. All in all, having plants at home has nothing but sheer advantages in different aspects of life.
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