The Mental Health Benefits of Plants

a green thumb. But I am determined to get better at this, to achieve, to cement my place among the grades of gardening, and at the very least grow something, even if it's just for my own family, so that they can enjoy the literal fruits of my labor. So let's dig into this journey where hopefully I'll do some

growing and maybe my plants will too. Hey there, I'm Mure, a co host of Part Time Genius, one of the founders of Metal Flaw, and this is Humans Growing Stuff, a collaboration from My Heart Media and your friends and Miracle Grow. My goal is to make this the most human show about plants you'll ever listen to. Along the way, we'll share sweet, inspiring stories, tips and tricks to nurture your plant addiction, and just enough science to make you sound like an expert at your next Zoom happy Hour.

And in this episode, we'll take you through how my big grudging relationship with gardening began and talk about why instead of resenting my failed experiments in the dirt, it's given me some much needed peace of mind. It's Me and the mental health Benefits of gardening. Chapter one, Plants

or the New Therapist. If Andrea Agasi you can start out the first page of his autobiography with the sentence I hate Tennis, I feel like maybe I can say the same thing about gardening, because the truth is, I'm like the Charlie Brown of gardening. But what's shocking about the fact that I can't garden is that I actually come from a long line of gardening experts. My grandfather was a botanist. He published papers on growing tropical forests, and he became a chief of forestry in India, where

he literally raised and protected forests. My dad was also an agriculture He worked on her besides and tried to figure out how to make giant crops yield more food. My uncle is a master gardener. My mom can I d almost any plant you throw at her. So I feel like, somewhere lurking inside me, there's this gardener that's waiting to be awoken. But I've been confused as to why I never got into gardening. So I called up

my sister Shampa. So I am calling you because you know, I'm doing this gardening podcast right and I'm trying to figure out what people think of me as a gardener. And I'm certain that you have some memories of me as a child. Well, what do you remember about me going into the garden with you guys and gardening as a family. You would slowly disappear, I remember, and when we realized that you were gone, you'd come like uh, with a glamorous tray of some kind of snacks or drinks.

I think ice coffee was a hit of yours. Most ice cream, I think, um. But I remember being like dirty and you'd come out with your clean clothes and a snack. I have a history of avoiding gardening, but I feel like I need gardening right now, because did you know what actually relieves stress and reduces anxiety that

is backed by actual science. In a study published by the Journal of Physiological Anthropology, subjects were monitored while tending to and transplanting indoor plants, and then monitored again while completing a task on a computer, and subjects had significantly lower blood pressure after working with the plants. Then there are all these other impressive studies that show the positive impact gardening can have on patients with PTSD, you know,

post traumatic stress disorder. Groups of veterans who suffered from PTSD who participated in horticultural therapy actually showed greater control over their symptoms. And in this era, when we're stuck at home and I can't really see my friends or family, I've been looking for a new way to manage some of my mounting stress and anxiety, something to get excited about and do with my kids and obsess over in

the best possible way. But before I get my hands dirty, I want to reach out to my good friend Barry tin Day. Thurston Bearing today is one of the most renaissance people I know, and I'm saying that as someone who's gone to renaissance festivals. Bear twin Days a writer and activist, comedian, and now a podcaster. He hosts the incredible how to Citizen with Bear ten Day, which makes me want a citizen as a verb. He is the author of the best selling book How to Be Black,

which is so good. He's been gardening his whole life, and if he hasn't gotten tired of it yet, I figure he's the right person to go. Do you for some growing inspiration and motivation recording. Now I'm gonna give you a clap welcome, thank you. I do everything wrong with plants, like I overwater them, I underwater them. I have him in the wrong spots of the house, the wrong size pots. I go on vacation without them, which

I don't think they love. I'm just looking for inspiration from someone who's been a lifelong gardener, and I wanted to ask you to tell me about how you got into gardening. YO. First of all, you're not alone, but start somewhere small and and just walk down and know you're gonna kill something like I don't know if you're

gonna become I've already done that part. So, my guest, you sound like you're in some kind of like you know, backyard tribunal is going to hit you pretty soon, like for like war crimes, Like the scale of the slaughter sounds pretty pretty significant. Plants can be very fickle. Sometimes they act like little divas and they have very high demands. Their persnickety, they're finicky like. So don't feel like you're too special or two alone in this. And I've just

returned to gardening. But as a child, I found it pretty soon because my mother enrolled me in a community garden. It felt like miles and miles and miles away from home because it was not on our block, but I think it was maybe twenty blocks away. And so I had a little plot of land and I would grow veggies and we would eat them. And so what I thought, you know, was my mother trying to expand my horizons and get me to explore our the outdoors in a

relationship with nature. Might have just been child labor, right. It might have just been let's not go to the grocery store so much. This little human can make food happen all on his own. One of the things I saw in your Twitter feed that I really loved and I've been thinking about is how plants connect you to the president and to the past. Yeah, so I have

snake plants. We've we've always had snake plants in our family, and I have been taking care of these plants for my whole life actually, so I have plants that no me from when I was, you know, six years old, and my mother passed away in two thousand five of colon cancer, and I have the plants from her home too. In all those moves that I had made when she was alive or even after she passed in two thousand five,

they were driving moves, you know. When I moved from Boston to New York, that was me moving to a city that she never knew me as a resident of. That was a really big deal for me to move to New York in two thousand and seven, two years after and my mother wasn't part of that journey, and I did not let the moving company handle the plants. I drove them myself in my car along with her ashes. So I have like actual like evidence of her life

and these plants who kind of knew her. When I moved to California a year ago, I had to ship them and they survived the journey. And one of the first things that we did when we moved in there's no furniture, we didn't have a bed yet, but we had the plant and I potted my mother's snake plants, and it was like she moved with us. It was like she got to meet uh this new place and inhabit it with us. And now those plants are behind me and all of the zoom calls and I'm forced

to do every day that she sits with me. So the snake plants have ebbed and flowed in size over the year, and depending on how well I've taken care of them, um and how crowded they are in in a pot, so they will they will kind of grow into the space. You a lot for them. And so I had just been maintaining them. Then Elizabeth took over.

But my partner, my fiance, Elizabeth, I tell you, she's like the queen of the green around here because she went and I used to clown about, You're always buying more pots and bigger things things and more this than that. But then she made it beautiful. The snake plants that she's been taken care of are huge. They are bursting

with life. They're so vibrant, and it's so emotional and beautiful for me because my fiance never got to meet my mother, and here she is kind of bringing her to life in our shared home and taking such care and with such conscientiousness, and the plants are responding. So to me, it's like, oh my mom, My Mom approves, you know, like she's feeling the love. You know, you're doing the respectful things. She was always very big on respect taking care of these plants, and they're rewarding us

with a greener, brighter, stronger presence. So the ones in my office are doing okay. The ones that taken care of are thriving. I feel like this is why I need a garden, Like as much as I need it for like the relaxation and the meditative aspects of it. I also just like stories is a big part and when you and you can create stories. So one of the things, like just noticing what's already here has been

a really necessary mental health exercise. My my days are very exhausting in that, like many of us, I stare at a computer screen all day. I also um handle hazardous material on a daily basis with respect to white supremacy and ideas of race and racism, especially in the United States. And I talk about these things, and I read about these things, and I write about these things, and I make shows about these things, and it is toxic.

Um and sometimes it gets to four or five pm on the day and I'm burnt out and I'm fired up, and I'm piste off, or I'm sad, or I'm all of those at once. And if I just go outside and initially reluctantly do something that needs doing in the garden, turn the m post, chop up some bananappeals, to add to the compost, check in on the plants, trim or prune,

and those leaves are not dehumanizing me. Twenty minutes of that is meditation to just live and breathe and be in harmony with more life, and that helps me feel less trapped in this world that most of us did not sign up for are not enjoying. And to see these plants still produce some fruit and still growing, and they have a sense of the movement of time through the life of plants, whether they were the ones who were here already, are the ones we added to the mix.

That slows things down, and it gives some differentiation to the days which all start to blur into one long zoom call and that's not life. I've actually been thinking about that a lot. How Like in this groundhog day, these plants are kind of this tangible measure of time. I love that you think about that too, their proof of life. Like we're all being held hostage, and these plants are like they're the markings on the door frame

that showed that time is passing. They're they're continuing to live and probably somehow showing us how to as well, if we would slow down enough to pay attention. I'm not quite there yet, fair Tenday. It is always such a pleasure to chat with you. Thank you so much for the inspiration and the time. Thank you for having me. Good luck with your own growing. And now for a section we call poetry corner. This poem is called Observations from a Serial Plant Murderer. Orange black for a million hazel.

These aren't colors that you want your basil. Thank you. After I chatted with bear Tin day, I couldn't stop thinking about what he said about starting small. So I dusted off a pair of gardening shears for my basement. I found a pretty copper watering can, and I took my kids this little nursery just a few blocks from our house. So you tell me a little bit about we went to a nursery this weekend. Right, It was

super fun. We went with your brother. Uh, tell me what it felt like to walk into the nursery because it was so hot outside, right, what did it feel like when we walked inside? Just felt so cool, so nice. It was just so it was just fun. Yeah. And and what did it look like? Well, from a plant, you were on chilts and then once you came outside, do you see this hanter plants on the ground. It

was just like a juncle. I was starting to feel better already, which makes sense because, as I mentioned, there's actually a lot of science behind the mental health benefits of just being around plants. According to data collected and reported by researchers at Texas A and M University, living near green spaces can improve your mood, It can reduce aggression, and even lessen the negative impacts of stress on your health.

So as I watched as Henry picked out a little palm and Ruby found this money tree, just being with them in these plants, I could feel my stress and my anxiety fade away. But after a week, those bright green leaves were on the yellow and we were quickly entering basil plant territory, and I didn't want another funeral on my heads. So I reached out to a gardening expert, Mr Planti himself, Michael Perry. The Sunday Times has declared

I'm one of the top twenty most influential horticulturalist. Is an expert gardener, port preneurs and co host of the Plant Based podcast, and we're so excited to have him here. Michael Perry, thank you so much for being on the show. Thank you, thank you for the wonderful intro. One of the most intriguing things to me about your bio is

that you worked as a plant hunter. It's it's not plant hunting as in I was climbing down ravines and you know, dangling off cliffs, but very much kind of plant hunting in terms of visiting lots of breeding companies, going to see customers at home to collect unusual plants, you know, going into the kitchens of a lot of these breeding companies in order to select new plants, but also devise ways of marketing with new plants and existing plants.

So it was a very very unusual role and not one that you could have predicted or had any training for. I honestly a lotted so much and one of the things I saw that you had introduced was the egg and chips plant. Yeah, can you can you tell the listeners when the egg and chip plant is because it is fascinating. Well, egg and chips plant is basically all one plant which is grafted in the middle so it grows as one. And it's an eggplant a k a abergine on the top and a potato on the bottom.

So hence the egg and chips. There's also another plant in that series, which is the tomotato, and that is tomatoes on the top and potatoes on the bottom. And that was actually marketed as ketchup and fries plant in the US, But the tomtato concept wasn't necessarily new. This is something that used to be done during the war in order to make the use of space in limited

spacing gardens and on allotments. Tell me a little bit about your grandparents garden and and and what it was about it that that was such a dry to you. When you're a kid, you know, your parents dump you there and the grandparents look after you, and you tend to you tend to get to know and love the things that your grandparents are into. And for me, it was growing and growing plants to exhibit a flower shows.

They were selling up markets as well, but yeah, it was a lovely childhood and they had this very big garden. I was always getting lost and you know, wanting to be in the wilderness and growing the plants. Obviously started doing that at home as well, and it was yeah, and just learned so much. Was such a magical time. What are some easy ways to start building an urban jungle in my apartment in Brooklyn inside, So that's obviously house plants. House plants are massively trendy over the last

few years. I don't know what your light situation is, but it's probably better to start with a few plants that are less fussy about the lighting. So like the z Z plant would be perfect. Various different types of pothos Latin name often shown as skin dapsis or ePRO primum, or you could have some color fears. They're not too fussy. Spider plants quite classic. A lot of foliage plants are probably going to be the most versatile thing for you

to go for. But if you have got some sunnier rooms and you can have some flowering plants, I mean a lot of people overlook orchids. A lot of the time, I think because the price on orchids is really really came down, you know, I Kea was selling them for like two euros apiece, so people hadn't got the same respect for them. But all kids are incredible house plants.

They blew for six weeks of the year, they're versatile, and or it's the one that I feel like I've read something about a plant that you put ice cubes in and let it melts, that this advice has kind of got a little bit mangled down the line because it's it's the equivalent of an ice cube per week. That makes so much more sense. It's nothing actual ice cube because kind of if you get that cold directly onto the roots of the orchid, it won't like it. So I often kind of rebrand that as and shot

glass of water per week because that's similar amounts. So shot glass espresso cup worth of water per week is

going to keep your orchids super happy. Or you can do the soak and leave it method, where you basically soak the orchids in a big bucket of water or a sink of water for about twenty minutes and then let them dry because you've got to remember or chids in the rainforest, they go through you know, wet periods to dry, so they're used to drying out in between, so you need to always let them dry out in between.

I'm curious about your own gardening practice. I mean, you're so busy with all the podcasts and the website and the business. What are some of the health benefits you've seen or felt from gardening and how do you work into your daily life. It's just it's about connection with nature really. I mean, I've just moved into a new house and I seem to have I've got probably fifty house plants, but I don't. I don't walk around thinking, oh, that's fifty house plants, because I feel like it's just

something I just need in my life. And it's kind of like the decor of the room. It softens the room obviously, you know, unknowingly, it makes me feel good, you know, it's nice to have something to care for. But it's also purifying the air in a in a very basic way, you know, removing toxins are at a very low level as well, and just generally uplifting. I'm just having a garden my new garden landscaped here as well, and I can't wait to get on board with all

the planting. But obviously it doesn't help that I'm so indecisive. I'll be digging everything up in two months. I like that permission to be indecisive. Gardening feels very unachievable to a beginner because there's lots of experts. They kind of don't necessarily explain it in a simple way because I think they're afraid of dumbing it down. Actually, you need to make gardening accessible and explain it very differently to

different people. And also failure, failure is not a bad thing at all, And failure in gardening is very natural and it happens a lot because plants are like they're like living people. They're not always going to behave in the way that you want them to. They're going to contract diseases or illnesses or not be happy in the conditions you put them in. But just don't panic. Just

brush yourself down and move on. You know, if a lot of people kind of see it as oh, I haven't got green fingers, or they see it as their own failure, but you know, there's a lot more going on with the plant than you know. The state of your green fingers. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you. When I was a kid, one of the things my parents wouldn't let me do was get a skateboard. When I went off to college, the first thing I did was I bought one, and I from as the

story has a point, this skateboard. It was mostly decoration sometimes my friends and I wrote it down the dorm's carpeted hallway. But the thing I started noticing when I took it out into the real world is how everything has an incline. Places that you could have sworn were flat parking lots and sidewalks. Suddenly I started noticing every dip and angle and just how fast you could race forward if you just stood there on your death skating.

Just a little bit that I did, it made me see all this topography completely differently, and I was aware of this whole new world. My chat with Michael Perry was fun and inspiring and and just dipping my toe into the gardening world. I'm starting to see my apartment differently, like a plant side view. I mean, it's it's weird to say, but I never really thought about which way the windows faced or exactly how much sun they were

letting in. I just knew it was bright, and I wasn't thinking about the air conditioner or the poor plants I'd set right in front of it. The other thing that's been on my mind is, well, I've been thinking a lot about Barreton Day and his mom and all the years and lives those plants he carries have witnessed. I've been thinking about what my kids will have and remember of me years from now, like can we use this weird period of quarantine, ng and and virtual schooling

to foster a level of plants together? And I've been thinking about the memories I carry. I never got much time with my grandfather, the botanist. He passed away when I was nine, and I grew up in the States, so aside from a few summers in India, I know him mostly through the stories my family tells, But I

do have a few memories. I cling to walking to market with him, trying to keep up because even though he was short, he walked so fast, fucking tiny bananas off a tree in the backyard and splitting them open together they were just so sweet and creamy. And then there's this time I fell asleep after dinner on the divan in the living room, and he woke me up

gently and walked me to bed. But before he did, he brought me into this little courtyard in the back of the house, and together we spied on a flower there, one that only bloomed at night. I only kind of remember how the flower looked. It was Bethlehem Louie, and I know it was white and full, drenched in moonlight. And I remember my grandfather whispering to me about how ephemeral it was, that the petals would actually crumble off by morning. And I remember holding his hand and knowing

somehow that all of this was special, magical. All of that feels a world away tonight. I'm tired, anxious, I can't stop thinking about the headlines. My family is asleep, so I've come upstairs to make myself some tea and too tidy and to putter. But instead of grabbing a book or turning on the TV, I noticed the plants. I spot the ones my kiddos, Henry and Ruby, brought home from the nursery today, and I remember what the

man at the shop said. The small one needs indirect light, so I moved it from the sill to the mantel, and then I spot a few brown leaves on a different plant, so I grabbed some nearby scissors and I start to snip, and in the quiet of the night, I start visiting each plant, testing the soils with my finger, mapping out a proper watering schedule, And in between thinking about my family and forgetting the troubles of my day, I start dreaming what this room could look like with

a little more green. Should I buy some hanging plants? Do I need some more pots or stands? I surveyed the room and imagine the possibilities, and I actually begin to smile, And somehow I tell myself, maybe this growing stuff is something I can do, something I can figure out together with you. That's it for today's episode. Don't forget whether you're a beginner like me, a pro trying something new, or someone in between enjoying your community garden.

There are incredible resources waiting for you on the Miracle Grow website. Next time on our show, we'll dig into pumpkin spice gardening and figure out what to plan outside, what to bring inside, and discover just how far my wife and kids will let me take this new obsession of mine. Humans Growing Stuff is a collaboration from I

Heart Radio and your friends at Miracle Grow. Our show is written and produced by Molly Sosha and me Mongy Chatigler in partnership with Ryan Ovadia, Daniel Ainsworth, Haley Ericsson, and Garrett Shannon of Banter Until next time, Thanks so much for listening.