This week, we have started to look for people to interview. We have decided to focus on people who call themselves "plant killers" - people who can't manage to keep their plants alive. In addition, we have interviewed a therapeutic gardening expert (a therapist who helps people with mental health issues through gardening).
How did we find all those people you ask? The answer is Facebook.
We have decided to make a post in a very well-known group called "Secret Tel Aviv", which has 400,00+ members, and ask people who identified as "plant killer" to help us in our research and let us interview them.
Surprisingly, we have gotten many comments straight away, and by the time we are writing this blog, the post has 200 comments.
The comments started coming in fast, many people saw the post and felt it was very relatable to them.We have reached out to many users from the comments and many were kind enough to help us and schedule interviews with us.
In the interviews, we asked about the routine and emotions while taking care of the plants to try and see what place plants take in people lives.
Our findings so far...
The interviews were extremely interesting and we have found a couple of running themes: 1. Communication, feedback and personification - many people compare their plants to animals and even children. The interviewees talked about the difference between caring for a child, who can call his owner and ask for what he needs, and plants that cannot come and demand their needs. Due to this reason, many times the treatment is missed and it leads to their death. Some people even named their plants, and we have found quite an interesting name to one of our interviewees plant - "David". 2. A problem of awareness and knowledge of the care and needs of plants - there is a difficulty in remembering and staying aware of the plants' needs and many lack the necessary knowledge to properly care for their plants. Because of this the care can missed and the plants die. 3. Feeling of loss and sadness that plants are dying - It can be noticed that there is a great negative feeling among the interviewees as soon as their plant dries up and dies. "I feel really bad because I killed full so it's to say yes and then I feel like a murderer", "When the aloe died, I felt a loss... I just forgot about it, I see it in front of my eyes and say I'll cry soon, I'll cry soon. And in the end it doesn't happen".
4. Plants in the house add good atmosphere - Almost all of our interviewees stated at the beginning of the interview that plants in the house infuse a good and pleasant atmosphere, the green creates a sense of comfort in the house. It can be learned from the various interviews that this is the main reason people choose to bring a plant home.
A conversation with an expert While searching for an expert in the field, we came across an association called "Adam Tzumah". This is a platform that gathers all the available information regarding the field of therapeutic gardening. We approached one of the doctors who take part in her death, with the aim of talking with her about the meaning of plant treatment for humans. She spoke about why using plants as therapy can be beneficial : "A universal good that most people agree that we feel free or feel mental calm when we are in nature or in an open space. This is inherent in us and also from a historical point of view and right from the beginning of humanity we as people have a connection to plants." Growing plants can give a sense of peace and disconnection from the stressful environment : "I gain a few moments of peace of mind disconnecting from the screen, not driving, not doing any stressful activity. You can really see it as a meditative touch", "There is an experience of being around plants that have healing qualities."
We have enjoyed having interesting conversations with many different people and can't wait to see what next week's journey will bring :)
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