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Plants in offices increase happiness and productivity

theguardian.com

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Re: Plants in offices increase happiness and productivity

#81

Post by Shivetya »

For the last twenty years the offices I have worked in have had trees in their atrium. A few coworkers have had plants in their individual cubes. Yet I think the fact I am in Atlanta and the last two office buildings I worked in are surrounded by trees and flowers made a bigger difference. You cannot look outside any window without seeing trees, shrubs, and depending on the time of year flowers.

I won't live in a city nor work in one for these very reasons. I never want to look out a window and see concrete. Yeah I know cities have parks and fortunately cities like Atlanta have more trees than not, but its the grayness, the dirty feeling I don't miss. Which leads me into one peeve, who thought that gray cubes and dark carpet were appealing?

Re: Plants in offices increase happiness and productivity

#82

Post by exDM69 »

exhilaration wrote: post #52
exDM69 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have a flood'n'drain style hydroponic garden at the office we use to grow Basil. We've tried some other stuff but nothing else is as low maintenance as basil. Now we have a problem where where to put it all. I make a huge bowl of pesto every week and force feed basil to all my coworkers whenever I get a chance but I just can't get rid of all of it. I can't even make a dent in the huge bush we have. We also grew so…

Could you post a picture? I'm intrigued by the idea of having too much basil - we pay a crazy amount ($1-$2) for maybe a dozen leaves when we make pizza. I've always been afraid that there would be not point in getting a basil plant because we'd strip it bare each time we needed basil.

This is a pretty big wall garden, with three shelves about two feet wide. We're talking about a four feet high, three feet wide wall of green you can stick your head in :) Can't provide a picture, sorry.

The varieties of basil we grow start out slow but grow really fast after a few weeks. The individual plants reach a height of several feet in a month or so.

We have started out by planting a few seeds and once those plants reach some height, we take cuttings to clone them and fill the entire garden. I've had an almost 100% success rate in cloning basil, much better than any other plant I've tried.

Do not trim the growth nodes (you won't eat them anyway), just pick as much leaves as you need from the lower parts of the plants.

Basil is really easy to grow in hydrocultures, it's much more difficult to grow in soil. Rucola is the opposite, I've had zero success putting it in the hydros at the office but grows really well at home in soil.

Re: Plants in offices increase happiness and productivity

#83

Post by exDM69 »

anigbrowl wrote: post #39
exDM69 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have a flood'n'drain style hydroponic garden at the office we use to grow Basil. We've tried some other stuff but nothing else is as low maintenance as basil. Now we have a problem where where to put it all. I make a huge bowl of pesto every week and force feed basil to all my coworkers whenever I get a chance but I just can't get rid of all of it. I can't even make a dent in the huge bush we have. We also grew so…

I make a huge bowl of pesto every week I'll take your excess basil if you're in the Bay Area, they're always running out at the supermarket and interrupting my pesto schedule XD

Sorry, I live more than half way across the globe. Basil isn't really easy to store either, it's not nearly as good if you bag it for a day or two.

And I have some reservations about carrying green leaves in small baggies :)

Re: Plants in offices increase happiness and productivity

#84

Post by Someone »

Shivetya wrote: post #81

For the last twenty years the offices I have worked in have had trees in their atrium. A few coworkers have had plants in their individual cubes. Yet I think the fact I am in Atlanta and the last two office buildings I worked in are surrounded by trees and flowers made a bigger difference. You cannot look outside any window without seeing trees, shrubs, and depending on the time of year flowers. I won't live in a cit…

"Which leads me into one peeve, who thought that gray cubes and dark carpet were appealing?"

The cleaners/the people who try to keep the cost of cleaning low.

They're not that bad, though, as long as you have sufficient daylight (building not too wide, large windows, low cubicle walls)

Re: Plants in offices increase happiness and productivity

#85

Post by david_b »

MBCook wrote: post #69
david_b wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't buy Ecospheres - I realize that many people don't feel particularly sympathetic toward shrimp, but they really are amazing creatures slowly starving to death: http://www.petshrimp.com/opaeinfo.php Although I have to admit large-scale installation of these things in cubicles would be quite the fitting ststement for many companies...

Do you have any other sources? When one company bashes a competitor in general I'm skeptical. I also know that the Ecosphere company sells larger installations for businesses and museums which gave them some credibility in my eyes (back when I first bought one). It wouldn't surprise me much if you were right. I don't plan to buy another though. It's been neat to watch, but after 6+ years (since I've had two spheres)…

Sadly the lifespan on wikipedia is not sourced:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halocaridina_rubra

If they indeed life up to 20 years the Ecosphere can hardly be very well balanced if it keeps them going for only 2-3 years.

Re: Plants in offices increase happiness and productivity

#86

Post by disputin »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #57
UrMomReadsHN wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you have so many insects inside your office?

I work at ground-level, we have some plants inside and a lot of them on the outside. I started regularly spraying myself with DEET when going to work, because there are tiny mosquitoes hell-bent on biting you during the day. At home I just observed that when I have plants near my windows, I get bees, wasps and hornets during summer much more often.

Reminds me of living on the ground floor next to a planty area in Malta. I was killing around 18 mosquitoes every evening, and discovered they fly through keyholes. Next flat was on the third floor.

Re: Plants in offices increase happiness and productivity

#88

Post by peterwwillis »

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #62

Cause and effect are reversed here - people who are happy and capable at a good enjoyable place to work often decide to bring plants in because they feel empowered to do so and have latitude to do it. Aping them by putting plants in front of disempowered bored workers will not help.

Agreed. If I had a nicer working environment I wouldn't need to bring in plants to make things less depressing. Instead of sighing at my desk at how drab things are, I can look at a plant and think how sad it is for a living thing to be forced to live out a sub-standard existence in an artificial environment. Funny how this 'one weird trick' gives perspective on the real problem.

Re: Plants in offices increase happiness and productivity

#89

Post by HCIdivision17 »

GazNewt wrote: post #79

Surely the presence of plants reflects employers giving a shit about the employee environment and that this this is the true reason for happiness and productivity. Really come on... I don't look at a plant and feel happy, it's common sense.

You'd likely be surprised then. I work in a plant, and seeing a live plant can relieve stress. At least it does for me, much in the way a glass of water on a hot day can. Otherwise, the whole day is beige office interior or the drab metalic grey of machinery. That, and plants make places _smell_ better. (Offices in factories really aren't closed systems...)

So, as counter point, I look at a plant and feel happy. I mean, if it can survive here, then I probably can.

Re: Plants in offices increase happiness and productivity

#90

Post by GazNewt »

HCIdivision17 wrote: post #89
GazNewt wrote: post #79

Surely the presence of plants reflects employers giving a shit about the employee environment and that this this is the true reason for happiness and productivity. Really come on... I don't look at a plant and feel happy, it's common sense.

You'd likely be surprised then. I work in a plant, and seeing a live plant can relieve stress. At least it does for me, much in the way a glass of water on a hot day can. Otherwise, the whole day is beige office interior or the drab metalic grey of machinery. That, and plants make places _smell_ better. (Offices in factories really aren't closed systems...) So, as counter point, I look at a plant and feel happy. I me…

Maybe you should work in a garden centre you'd be on a constant high.
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