Are you working from home these days? I am. On good days, I’m thrilled with how much I get done. I’ve honed my multitasking abilities by writing and attending zoom meetings while slow cooking dinner or vacuuming my bedroom with my robot vacuum cleaner. Another perk? My dogs are my personal assistants. 

On bad days, I feel sort of lonely. My co-workers are postage-stamp size heads on my computer screen. Everyone has to talk one at a time, so the spontaneous push and pull of brainstorming meetings gets diluted. And I realize that not much actually gets done when your dogs are your personal assistants. They just want snacks and walks. 

So I’ve surrounded myself with plants to make an inspirational working area. Living in Florida, I can move my home office outdoors to my screened porch when weather permits. I’ve been writing on my laptop at my dining room table with a little tabletop shrine of plants to keep me company. My leafy coworkers are two fiddle leaf figs (Little Fiddle) which seem to love the shaded area on the porch and have been thriving there happily. They aren’t always so easy to raise, so it’s cool to see we’ve found a place they really like. 

And to add a little color and texture, I’ve clustered a small collection of Rex begonias on the table. Staring into the swirling colorful leaves gives me inspiration. Here’s another perk; studies show that plants improve your productivity. 

Here are a couple other nice options for home work spaces.

Snake plant: These plants offer a vertical presence for small desk spaces. 

Dracaena: I love the mass of thin, strappy leaves of 'Anita' as an ideal for a desk mate. These plants rarely drop leaves, so your work area will stay neat and clean. 

Air plants: These adorable, other-worldly plants require an occasional spritzing with water, but otherwise live happily seated in a bowl or plate. 

Written by Karen Weir-Jimerson