Start an indoor garden

IMPROVE YOUR WELLBEING BY TRANSFORMING YOUR HOME INTO A HAVEN FOR HOUSEPLANTS

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Whether it’s a cluster of greenery to elevate your living room, a miniature ecosystem in a terrarium or even a micro-farm on your kitchen windowsill, an indoor garden can be anything you want it to be, on any scale to fit your space.

Even if you have a balcony or garden, growing plants inside your home can take over as your main source of peaceful pleasure – with no mowing, digging or getting rained on required. Creating an indoor garden brings a whole raft of physical and mental benefits. Let these green-thumbed experts persuade you…

1 PLANTS WILL BRING YOUR ROOM DECOR TO LIFE

Ian Drummond, botanical designer and author of At Home With Plants, explains the aesthetic importance of greenery: ‘Houseplants enrich our interior spaces like nothing else because they create a visual connection with the power of nature - and we need this,’ he says. ‘Think of them as living pieces of three-dimensional art to soften hard lines or break up spaces. Group smaller plants together, or go big, brave and sculptural.’

2 THEY IMPROVE HOME HEALTH

‘Plants are an essential part of our lives,’ says Thomas Palfreyman, managing director of planting specialists Urban Planters. ‘They improve the places where we work, rest and play, cleaning air in a natural and effective way as long as they are in the correct location and have the correct levels of light, water and temperature for their specific needs.

‘Any plant enhances the aesthetics within a building,’ he continues. ‘They not only look great but they also help to improve air quality, reduce noise, collect dust, remove pollutants and VOCs and regulate temperature.’