Indoor Gardens

This is aimed at helping students approach design theory and implement it into their practice.

Why make indoor gardens?

The grassy plains have become textured concrete, the trees enclosed elevators. Very quickly we have changed from people of the land to people of the buildings at a rate faster than our bodies and minds could evolve to suit it.

Designing Indoor Gardens

In an indoor space a plants can be a garnish on a dresser or the theme for the entire space and anywhere in between.

Indoor gardens are currently having a renaissance particularly with young adults as they look for meaning and as they struggle with the likelihood that they will never own any real estate. If they do it is unlikely to have an outdoor space large enough that their parents will call it a garden.

So indoor gardens are becoming the space to show your gardening skills, tastes, and flair.

Aesthetics

The palette of plants that are available and suit indoor spaces partially determine the theme of the space. So, what is the palette of plants? A lot of the plants that survive well in indoor spaces have evolved on the floor of forests with low light levels. Many have adapted leaves that have large surface area and darker coloration. This differs say to a lot of Australian native trees where the leaves have adapted to withstand the high heat.

This leads to a lot of indoor gardens having that jungle feel that is seen regularly now. This is a good thing as it generally means that the maintenance is going to be lower.

Indoor Vertical Rainforest, Paris, France - By Tropical Gardening

Session Outline

• Discussion - Why are plants important to us?

• Designing indoor gardens

• Presentation - Indoor gardens

• Choosing indoor plants

• Effects of plants on health

• Indoor plant care and maintenance

Natuur Dichterbij Brengen met Alexander Bond: een masterclass in Plant Design - By Mooiwatplantendoen.nl

Creatiever Leven met Ro Co: een masterclass in Plant Design - By Mooiwatplantendoen.nl

Presentations

Choosing Indoor Plants

When choosing indoor plants there are a few main characteristics that we must design for.

• Light

• Water

• Temperature

• Humidity

• Other maintenance

Like outdoors we must design for micro-climates. Each place in your house will have its own light levels and temperatures that fluctuate across the day.

Houseplant 101: What Plant is Right for My Space? — Ep 116 - Summer Rayne Oakes

Light

Grow Lights for Houseplants — Plant One On Me — Ep 054 - By Summer Rayne Oakes

Water

Houseplant 101: How to Water Houseplants Properly — Ep 12 - By Summer Rayne Oakes

Temperature

Maintenance

• Dusting the leaves - Leaves will become covered in a film of dust when indoors. Outside rain and wind will help to periodically clean your leaves. Inside we need to do this ourselves. Spraying down the leaves and wiping off the dust will help the plant photosynthesise closer to its capacity.

• Re-potting - Plants in pots will inevitably get too big for them. At this point you can pot up into larger pots to provide adequate ratio of root zone to foliage. Or you can trim back the root system and try and stunt the plant to keep it into the current pot.

• Sunning - Sometimes we desire plants to be in positions that don’t necessarily have appropriate levels of light for that plant. They may need to be rotated out into other areas or swapped with other plants from time to time.

• Feeding - Plants draw food from their soil. Potting media is not usually the same as outdoor soil and can lack the nutrition that the plant needs.

Effects of plants in indoor spaces

• Indoor air quality

• Psychological effects

Important studies

Ulrich, R. S., Human responses to vegetation and landscapes, (1986), Landscape and Urban Planning, Number of citations 326

This article reviewed multiple studies that had been conducted.  Simply, participants have a more positive perception of spaces that are natural over urban views. Participants have a preference for ordinary nature scenes over urban ones.  However, as green life is inserted into urban scenes the participants perception becomes more positive. The effects were the same on psychological states and emotional states. The benefits could lead to improved health and efficiencies in the workplace. Complexity within the scenes provided a reduction in preference.

“Results from self-ratings of feelings made immediately before and after the presentations indicated that exposure to the two categories of natural scenes, especially water, had more positive influences on subjects’ emotional states (Ulrich, 1986).”

“A salient difference was that the natural scenes sustained attention and interest much more effectively than the urban views (Ulrich, 1986).”

Lottrup, L., Grahn, P. and Stigsdotter, ‘Workplace greenery and perceived level of stress: Benefits of access to a green outdoor environment at the workplace’, (2013), Landscape and Urban Planning, Number of citations 39

The study shows that outdoor spaces in the workplace can influence the working day making it more enjoyable and healthier. It found that physical access was both beneficial to workplace attitude and that physical access was the most beneficial.

“Based on the findings of this study, companies should maximize their view of natural elements from workplace windows and physical access to green outdoor environments for employees in order to reduce stress levels amongst employees and to stimulate a positive attitude toward the workplace (Lottrup, Grahn and Stigsdotter, 2013).”

“…found that more men than women went outdoors during the working day, and that women reported ‘being too busy’ as an impediment to going outdoors far more often than men (Lottrup et al., 2012). This indicates a gender difference in exposure to greenness during the working day (Lottrup, Grahn and Stigsdotter, 2013)”

de Kort, Y. A. W., Meijnders, A. L., Sponselee, A. A. G., & IJsselsteijn, W. A., What’s wrong with virtual trees? Restoring from stress in a mediated environment, (2006), Journal of Environmental Psychology, Number of citations 48

Physical environments can have restorative effects through positive states, focused attention, reduced stress shown in skin conductance, muscle tension, pulse transit time and blood pressure. This can be achieved through showing images and media of nature or directly through immersion in natural environments. Natural environments have a greater effect.  Microbial biomes may be a confounder in this.  (Gabriele et al., 2014)

“In the recent past there have been numerous studies indicating the beneficial effects of restorative often natural environments. These are said to help people reduce psychophysiological stress and renew attention and other psychological resources (Parsons & Hartig, 2000, Chapter 30).”

Park, S. H., & Mattson, R. H., Therapeutic influences of plants in hospital rooms on surgical recovery, (2009), HortScience, Number of citations 28

Foliage plants and flowering plants were placed in recovery removes of patients after surgery.  It was found that the hospitalization times were reduced, pain distress, anxiety and fatigue were reduced as compared to the controls.

Han, K.-T., Influence of Limitedly Visible Leafy Indoor Plants on the Psychology, Behavior, and Health of Students at a Junior High School in Taiwan, (2009), Environment and Behavior, Number of citations 109

The introduction of plants with limited visibility at the back of the classroom had health and truancy benefits.  Only 6% floor coverage with indoor plants was used. They claim that the results may have been influenced by other variables such as novelty. The children would have been susceptible to this. 

Shibata, S. & Suzuki, N., Effects of an indoor plant on creative task performance and mood, (2004), Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, Number of citations 141

Compares the effect of a rack of magazines vs plant life in a room versus a control room on creativity and mood of the participants. The nature of tasks can determine how whether the plant life is of benefit or can become a distraction in task performance.    As plant life increased in one instance there was a drop off on task performance.  This points to the possibility of dependence on the type of task. The study identifies some key areas where extensions on this research might be fruitful.

Aydogan, A., & Montoya, L. D., Formaldehyde removal by common indoor plant species and various growing media, (2011), Atmospheric Environment, Number of citations 33

Formaldehyde is common in many building materials currently and over the past century.  It is often found in glued timbers and particle boards as well as papers.

It has been shown that there is a correlation between indoor pollution and chronic illness (Randolph and Ralph, 1980; Weschler, 2009). An interesting outcome was that the root system was more effective than the plants aerial parts at removing formaldehyde from the air.