Bringing the outdoors in – why plants are great for your home

A garden is so much more than a collection of plants. Plants improve air quality and beautify spaces, bringing joy and healing to your home. But what if you live in a city apartment with little to no outdoor space? Simple, bring the outdoors in! Houseplants and indoor jungles have gained popularity for many good reasons.

Purify the air

Houseplants go beyond aesthetics. With air-purifying qualities, they bring fresh air into your home. A house has many man-made materials that are off-gassing harmful compounds. Having plants indoors will reduce a lot of common household toxins. These can come from many sources – new furniture, wall paints, new electronics, cleaning fluids, air fresheners, and pest spray.

Pothos (akar keladi) is probably the easiest to grow houseplant. Indestructible and easy to propagate, it’s a good plant starter for your indoor jungle. They look lovely in pots, hanging baskets, or even just bowls of water, providing immediate colour to a room with their flowing tendrils. Pothos are efficient in reducing formaldehyde (from particle boards and gas stoves) and benzene (from glues, paints, furniture wax, and detergents).

Ferns can absorb gases through their leaves and roots. There are many fungi, bacteria, and other microbes around the fern roots that break down many harmful toxins. Ferns are very low maintenance. They thrive in humid environments and shady spots with filtered sunlight. Keep their soil moist but not drenched to avoid root infection.

Tabletop and wall decors

Why not let nature spruce up your furniture? Plants make spaces look more vibrant and alive. Start small, with one or two plants on side tables, or go all out and create your indoor jungle.

Mini succulent gardens make great table centrepieces. They are a sure conversation starter at dinner parties. The golden rule for succulents is to find the best amount of watering. An underwatered succulent will have shrivelled up leaves. An overwatered one will have soft, almost translucent leaves that eventually fall off. To keep your succulents happy, let the soil dry between waterings and make sure they get enough sunlight.

With their unusual shapes, air plants look other-worldly and exotic. Named such because they require no soil and can grow in, that’s right, air. Since they don’t need pots, you have all kinds of options to display them. These plants are very hardy and need much less attention than other house plants. Depending on the humidity of your home, submerge them in water for 2-3 hours about every two weeks or use a soaking mist once or twice every week. Place them in bright, filtered light. The higher the humidity, the higher light it will tolerate.

Make a statement

Snake plants (lidah jin or lidah biawak) are easy to grow and robust. With its tall height and bold yellow stripes, it makes a statement piece with little maintenance. They generally grow slowly indoors, but increasing their exposure to light will boost growth if it receives a few hours of direct sun.

The darling of Instagram and Pinterest, the fiddle leaf fig is a great option to make a big statement. These plants are distinctive and elegant with their huge foliage and great height. Place your fiddle leaf fig in a bright window and rotate it occasionally so the tree grows straight rather than bending towards the light.

In a world of endless zoom meetings and social media notifications, home gardens give us a chance of respite. Plants can transform your home into a welcoming sanctuary, away from the hustle of the outside world. Watering, pruning, and repotting require us to slow down and carefully tend to something tangible. And after all that care, it is something magical to see your plant grow a new leaf or bring out flowers.

Hartwick is a content writer under Headliner by Newswav, a programme where content creators get to tell their unique stories through articles and at the same time monetize their content within the Newswav app.
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