Real Simple Real Simple The Power of Plants

IF THE GARDEN STORE SEEMS A LITTLE MORE CROWDED TO YOU THESE DAYS, it’s not your imagination: The houseplant is having its moment. Household spending on indoor gardening grew nearly 50 percent between 2016 and 2019, with sales of houseplants reaching close to $2 billion, according to the National Gardening Association (NGA). The pandemic only spurred interest further, as people spending more time at home began to rethink what they wanted to be surrounded by. Household plant purchasing grew an additional 30 percent between 2020 and 2021, reports the NGA. About two-thirds of American adults now tend to at least one plant in their home, according to several surveys. Regardless of when or why you fell in love with your parlor palm, being around plants is a good thing, and it’s part…

WE ALL KNOW FRUITS AND VEGETABLES are good for your body, and who can argue that a vase of flowers doesn’t add some cheer to a home? What you may be surprised to learn is that the process of growing your own produce or blooms may be just as good for you. Academic researchers have verified what your ebullient tomato-growing neighbor has been telling you: Gardening offers health benefits beyond just fresh produce or Technicolor tulips. From stronger muscles to lighter moods, the mental and physical benefits of gardening are real, and they are as close at hand as your own backyard or community garden. Exercise You may think “real” exercise involves putting on workout clothes and reporting to the gym, but heading outside in gardening gloves and an old pair of…

IT’S NO SECRET THAT GARDENS CAN BRING US CLOSER TO NATURE, but they can also bring us closer to one another, connecting us with a fertile community. Even when we’re by ourselves in the flower beds, deadheading zinnias, we’re connected to the ones who taught us how to sow seeds, who introduced us to new varieties, who showed us how to cultivate the soil: our horticultural ancestors. I think of my great-grandmother, who planted peonies that continued to bloom more than 100 years later, and of my grandmother, who grew peas, string beans, and cucumbers to feed her family in Japan during World War II. Every time we sink our trowel into the earth, we honor those connections. As author Elizabeth Lawrence wrote, “No one can garden alone.” It helps that…

THE THING ABOUT post-traumatic stress disorder is you never know when it will strike. I’ve learned this over the course of managing it for decades. The day I took my first post-vaccine stroll without a mask in April 2021, I started feeling that familiar neck prickle. I was passing an outdoor garden-supply store at the time, so I hid behind a potted tree, took some deep breaths among the lilacs, and—on an impulse I can only describe as involuntary—purchased 12 seedlings: cherry tomatoes, mint, lettuces, rosemary, parsley, strawberries, sage, and bell peppers. Had I ever grown a garden before? No, I had not. But my subconscious had spoken, and if I’ve learned anything while managing my PTSD, it’s to tune in to that voice. Plus, watering and talking to my indoor…

IN MIDLIFE, NEWLY SINGLE, I decided to transform my backyard into a perfect garden. Why I thought myself capable of such an endeavor, I do not know. I’d barely tinkered with the flower beds outside the home I’d shared with my ex-husband, and to mediocre results. I had a woeful history with houseplants. This didn’t stop me as I walked outside that first April, shovel in hand. Since signing the deed to this house, I’d gone to sleep with visions of peonies and sunflowers and sweet, shady nooks in my head. I believed I could learn what I needed to know to make these visions come true. I recognized my impulsive determination from my life as a fiction writer: I wanted the garden to exist, but more important, the garden…

FERNS IN A SUNNY SPOT IN THE DEN. A little snake plant on the bedside table. Basil on the windowsill. Plants have a special ability to turn a house into a home. Being a plant parent, however, is not without its worries. Chief among them: How do we keep these leafy life forms from ending up in the compost heap? “My journey with plants involved a lot of trial and error,” admits Hilton Carter, an Instagram star whose home is filled with hundreds of specimens. “But if you educate yourself a bit, you can avoid having to say, ‘Oh, I messed that one up. Let me go buy a new one.’ With a little knowledge, anyone can keep plants alive.” THE 3 MOST COMMON PROBLEMS The best way to figure out whether…