How to plant new life into your residential property

Houseplants: either a beautiful addition to your décor, or a scientific mystery that requires a biology degree to keep alive.

Here at Lugtons, we understand how a plant can bring new life into your living environment – literally. We want to help you grow your knowledge with our top tips to find plants that suit your home and your lifestyle.

Before you hit the shops, make sure you plan where you want your plants to live, to ensure you are buying something that will thrive in that specific location. Light, shade, heat, dampness, and lack of air are all factors to consider with the type of foliage you’re purchasing.

Want a Monstera? These creatures need moisture! Make sure it’s not too close to the kitchen, or a dryer, to help prevent the leaves from drying out or cracking, or impacting new growth.

Of all the factors affecting your plant growth, light is the most important. Light is variable in almost all your household locations, with everything from wall colour, to window curtains, day length, time of day and time of year, impacting whether your plant flourishes.

A plant’s label will usually tell you the light requirements of the plant, to help you with your placement. If you’re looking for a great hard-to-kill all-rounder, try a Peace Lily. These hardy creatures can tolerate most environmental conditions, but specifically shade, making them perfect for those areas that don’t have an awful amount of natural light.

Plants are an affordable, often surprising, and easy way to add to your interior design. Simple, yet effective, they have a way of adding an extra dimension to your living area.

Modern interior design tricks include using plants as accent pieces to soften an area, a point of interest through a ‘pop’ of colour, or to bring texture into the environment.

Where should you start? Look at your empty corners for inspiration – these are the perfect spots to fill with new life. Or why not look to your walls and ceilings? Hang a cascading plant for a point of interest and a hint of vibrancy. Another option is to look to your tables, bookshelves and breakfasts bars as potential locations to display living centrepieces.

You’ve nailed the style, now it’s time to reap the benefits.

From a health perspective, the photosynthesis process helps to absorb the carbon dioxide within an area and release oxygen. Why is this important? It increases oxygen levels… and our bodies appreciate that!  They also deter illness through a process called transpiration. Using plants in an interior space can lower the occurrence of dry skin, colds, sore throats and dry coughs – something to keep in mind as we move into the colder months.

Did you know they also help you work better? What? How? Well, it has been said that placing indoor plants in your work or home office will help boost concentration, memory and productivity. Sounds like we need to get planting.

If you are looking to place your home on the market and want to know how plants can improve aesthetic, make sure you contact the team at Lugtons today. We’re always happy to talk about the plant life in your residential property, and how it can be used to place your home in the best light.