Should You Talk to Your Plants? + Barbara Kingsolver’s Farmhouse + DIY Reality Checks

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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Jenn Largesse (0:31)

From LAist and APM, American Public Media, it's This Old House Radio Hour. I'm Jenn Largesse.

Do you talk to your plants? The experts say you should.

Hilton Carter (0:41)

Sharing your love for them helps them grow. Just like if I told you, Jenn, I love your glasses, you're going to perk up and be a little bit more excited.

Jenn Largesse (0:51)

Author Barbara Kingsolver writes about the bond between people and the natural world, the land and the lives that shaped it.

Barbara Kingsolver (0:58)

That porch is the most used part of our house. That's where we sat when Steven read a lot of my first drafts. I can look out at the trees and the horizon and pretend that I'm not waiting for his response.

Jenn Largesse (1:14)

All of this plus we're answering your home improvement questions at 877-864-7460. Coming up next.

You're listening to This Old House Radio Hour. I'm Jenn Largesse. How far will you go for your plants? Maybe move them, mist them. What about talk to them? In Los Angeles, home to partner station LAist 89.3, we asked, who's chatting with their plants? And here's what you said.

SPEAKER_5 (1:52)

I do talk to my plants. I like to think of myself as a plant nurturer.

Joe Volk (1:58)

Sometimes I pet them.

Hannah Goldman (2:00)

I run my hands out to get the dead leaves off.

SPEAKER_8 (2:03)

That's all I do.

Hannah Goldman (2:04)

We do, yeah.

Mark McCullough (2:05)

I do not talk to the plants.

Beth Jenkins (2:06)

I've had a few orchids in the past and I have never spoken to them.

SPEAKER_8 (2:09)

Apologies, orchids.

Phoebe Cutt (2:11)

I have them, but I don't talk to them.

SPEAKER_8 (2:14)

I have two half-dead succulents. I apologize for not watering them properly and that's about it.

Mark McCullough (2:23)

I do not talk to the plants.

SPEAKER_5 (2:24)

I sing to them.

SPEAKER_8 (2:26)

I think it helps.

SPEAKER_5 (2:26)

There's science behind that.

Jenn Largesse (2:28)

Sadly, you guys know I am notoriously terrible with plants, but maybe talking to them is exactly the kind of TLC they've been missing. Plant stylist Hilton Carter shares some very practical advice for keeping them alive, whether you talk to them or not.

Hilton, does talking to your plants really work?

Hilton Carter (2:47)

I believe so. I believe speaking to any living thing helps, right? You speak to your friends and family, you speak to your pets.

You have those conversations. I think there are a lot of benefits for both the individual and the plants when it comes to voicing your love, your concerns, all those things. I think it really does help.

Jenn Largesse (3:11)

It makes perfect sense to me. Do you think the benefits of talking to your plants are from sort of an emotional support standpoint, or are they just CO2 from your breath? What's the science there?

Hilton Carter (3:23)

Well, look, I'm not a scientist. I would just say based on how I've seen relationships thrive, right? I like to say nurture what nurtures you, and I believe sharing about your love for them helps them grow. Just like if I told you, Jenn, I love your glasses. I love the way your hair looks. You're going to perk up and be a little bit more excited, right?

That works for plants. There has been a study done years ago where they took two groups of kids and they brought in two plants, two exactly the same types of plants. Let's just say they're peace lilies, right? Two peace lilies, same size, gave them the same light, gave them the same water. And you had the one group of kids say really terrible things to the plant, your soil is dirty, your leaves are ugly, all these bad things to them. They took the other group, the nice group of kids, and they said nice things to the plants.

Your water is perfect. Your leaves are beautiful. You smell great. And over time, they kept doing this over and over again. And again, they had the same light. They had the same moisture, exact same plant. The one that was told it was ugly and wasn't great started to die. And the one that was, that gave all the wonderful affirmations of goodness started to grow and thrive. And I think that's just what it is in life, right? So talking to your plants can be very beneficial, but I think it's also for us. So for me, the first moment I saw it working for me was when I got my first plant and I wasn't doing such a great job caring for it. And I started to have that bond. I created this bond and I thought that that helped. Once I started to talk to it and I gave it a name, I called it Frank, it was a fiddle leaf fig. And that conversation, that back and forth, and I say back and forth because plants do talk to you as well, really benefited me in terms of me understanding that there was an effort, there was something that I would have to do to help this plant thrive. And it just kept going from there.