Feng Shui with Plants: Your Indoor Gardening Guide To this Far East Tradition

If you practice Feng Shui – or want to – Feng Shui with plants is something about which you’ll want to know more. Indoor gardening in general is a healthy activity ideal for individuals who don’t have a lot of outdoor space. Through indoor gardening, you can reduce stress levels, sharpen your attention, and speed up your recovery from illnesses. Indoor gardening can also provide access to fresh organic produce, purify indoor air, and improve your home’s aesthetics.

If you love indoor gardening, consider incorporating Feng Shui for an even better gardening experience. This Far East tradition utilizes your living space by harmonizing the flow of energy.

What Is Feng Shui?

Also known as Chinese geomancy, Feng Shui is the practice of moving or rearranging items in living spaces to create a healthy balance with the natural world. Feng Shui aims to harness energy forces present in a living space and build harmony between people and their environment.

The word “Feng” means wind, and the “Shui” means water. Feng Shui is about human life and how it connects and flows with the environment around it.

Although the tradition originated in China, many countries worldwide have adapted and implemented Feng Shui in their homes.

Feng Shui aims to create the right balance of energy at home. This practice is said to improve your relationships, well-being, and success. Feng Shui with plants is also a great way to clear bad energy, allowing your energy to flourish.

Apply Feng Shui with Plants

Having an indoor garden already provides countless benefits, but did you know that Feng Shui can enhance these benefits? Plants are breathing and living beings. Their energy can affect the ambiance and appeal of your home, as well as the energy of its inhabitants.

Implementing Feng Shui with plants in your indoor garden allows you to achieve the following:

1. Improve the Energy of Your Living Space

As mentioned, plants are breathing, living beings. Their presence can generate feelings of vitality and different types of energy inside your home. Through Feng Shui, you can better use these plants as tools to bring more life to an otherwise still environment indoors.

2. Balance the Five Elements Using Feng Shui with Plants

According to Chinese tradition, there are five elements to effective Feng Shui:

• Earth
• Fire
• Wood
• Metal
• Water

Although all plants are considered wood elements, it’s important to pay attention to the other four elements as well. Ensure these elements are in their proper zones to create the right Feng Shui indoor garden design.

3. Attract Love

Using plants that produce flowers, practicing Feng Shui with plants in your indoor garden is also said to help attract love. This attraction is especially true if you place flowers in your bedroom and your Peach Blossom Area. This area correlates to romance and love and is determined based on your zodiac animal.

Here’s how to determine your Peach Blossom Area:

• If your zodiac animal is a rat, monkey, or dragon, your Peach Blossom Area is in the west.
• For zodiac animals dog, horse, and tiger, your Peach Blossom Area is in the east.
• When your zodiac animal is a snake, ox, or rooster, your Peach Blossom Area is in the south.
• If your zodiac animal is rabbit, sheep, or pig, your Peach Blossom Area is in the north.

Where To Place Indoor Houseplants for Proper Feng Shui

Deciding where to place your plants is the most crucial part of applying Feng Shui with plants. A poorly chosen location can prevent energy from flowing into your living spaces and even create tension indoors.

Here are some tips for successful Feng Shui with plants:

1. Southeast and East Areas

The southeast and east areas of your home belong to the wood element, and so do all types of plants. Placing plants in these locations can enhance the wood energy of that area.

Giving more energy to the east improves your creativity, motivation, and career. When placed in the southeast, plants can improve your financial health and social relationships.

However, when placing plants in your home’s southeast and east areas, make sure you don’t go overboard. Creating a forest in a single area can block the energy from flowing freely and even result in unintended consequences.

2. South Areas

In the Chinese tradition, the south area belongs to the fire element. Placing your plants in this location is ideal because fire feeds on wood, resulting in increased courage and better judgment. Putting plants in your home’s southern areas can help improve your reputation with your friends, family, and even at work.

3. Living Room and Entry Hall

To bring good luck to the entire family, invest in large indoor plants for your living room and entry halls. Placing your plants in these areas will create welcoming energy, making it easier for everyone to feel at ease.

4. Feng Shui with Plants in the Dining Room

Adding plants in your dining room can improve your entire family’s financial health, especially if they are fruit-bearing plants. These varieties signify the reaping of rewards in Chinese tradition. Just make sure that you choose plants appropriate to the size of your dining room. Placing one that’s too big or too small isn’t good Feng Shui.

5. Underneath Beams

Because it creates oppressive and heavy energy, beams are known to bring bad Feng Shui. Beams located inside your front door can visually limit the incoming flow of energy, making it bad Feng Shui, too. That’s why Feng Shui suggests that you don’t work, sleep and rest under beams.

Fortunately, adding tree-like plants underneath your beams can help. The plant’s upward direction can counter the suppressing energy of your beams. Refrain from using plants that almost reach your beams as this will restrict the flow of energy indoors.

6. Home Office

Studies have proven that plants can improve learning and concentration. So, place plants in spaces where you want to be productive. Placing four straight lucky bamboos in your home office or study area is considered good Feng Shui.

Where Not To Place Plants for Feng Shui

To make the most out of your indoor garden, pay attention to the locations considered bad Feng Shui. This knowledge will help you determine where to place your plants to avoid creating bad Feng Shui inside your home.

Make sure to avoid placing plants in the areas listed below to achieve good Feng Shui for your indoor garden:

1. Center of the House

The center area of your house is part of the earth element. Plants are wood elements that can weaken the earth element. Minimize putting plants in these areas.

However, this doesn’t mean you should completely disregard the idea of adding some greenery in the center of your home. If this area is too bland, add plants but use smaller plants instead of large ones.

2. Northeast and Southwest Areas

The northeast and southwest areas also belong to the earth element, similar to the center of your house. Avoid putting places in these areas as it will create negative energy that can adversely impact your well-being.

Placing plants in the southwest area of your home can weaken the earth energy indoors. This weakening can cause problems in your relationship and marriage. Adding plants in the northeast area, on the other hand, can slow down your ability to learn. This placement can have drastic effects, especially if you have kids at home, as this can result in poor academic performance.

3. Northwest Areas

The northwest area of your home belongs to the metal element. Metal and wood naturally destroy each other, making the northwest area of your home one of the worst places to put your plants.

Adding a strong presence of wood energy to a metal element can damage the family’s health and success. In fact, the larger the plants you add to this area, the more drastic its effects are on your family.

4. Bedroom

Many people love to add plants to their bedrooms. However, experts consider this practice bad Feng Shui – and there are many reasons why. For one, experts believe that placing plants in the bedroom can harm the family’s breadwinner’s health and luck.

Moreover, plants bring vital energies of growth, preventing you from getting a good night’s sleep.

If you want to add a pop of color to your bedroom, add flowers in vases. Why? Because flowers can help you attract the attention of the opposite sex and improve the ambiance of your bedroom.

5. Kitchen

Your kitchen is full of items that belong to the fire element. Your oven, stove, and other appliances all create energy that is associated with the fire element. Since plants are wood elements and feed on the fire element, your kitchen isn’t ideal for your plants.

Excessive fire energy can negatively impact your entire family’s energy and even the passion shared between couples.

The Types of Plants To Use

You can buy plants in many varieties today. Regardless of your home’s size or your limited time, there’s always a variety that fits the bill.

However, when using good Feng Shui with plants, you shouldn’t only pick ones that suit your available space or schedule. To properly create good Feng Shui in your indoor garden, you should also consider the following when picking plants:

1. Size and Shape of Leaves

Plants naturally have leaves that vary in form and shape. For good Feng Shui with plants, choose round leaves over long, pointy leaves and large leaves over small leaves.

The Chinese culture considers plants with pointed leaves bad for Feng Shui because of their form. On the other hand, large, round leaves are thought to attract positive energies and improve the well-being of the people living in the house.

Some of the best indoor plants to create good Feng Shui with plants are:

• Areca Palm
• Boston Fern
• Jade Plant
• Lucky Bamboo

Golden Pothos and snake plants are also excellent choices as they are easy to maintain and propagate.

2. Plant Size

The Chinese believe that the larger the plant is, the more energy it brings to the household. However, this doesn’t always remain true in Feng Shui. As mentioned in the previous sections, it’s important to consider location when choosing the right sized plant.

Adding large plants to your living room and entry halls can bring positive energy. However, adding the same sized plants in the center of your home can create the opposite effect.

3. Feng Shui with Plants that Flower

Growing flower-bearing plants can add color to your indoor garden and is said to attract love in Feng Shui. When using these in creating good Feng Shui, you’ll want to pay attention to its location and other present elements.

In the five elements of Feng Shui, wood produces fire. Plants belong to the wood element, but the fire energy can significantly increase when flowers bloom in pink or red. This combination can be ideal, depending on where you’re going to place the flowers in your home.

4. Avoid Cacti

Cacti are still plants but are unique as they don’t have any leaves. Instead, they have many needles that are associated with negative energy. The form and shape of the cacti are also considered negative in Feng Shui.

For your indoor garden to have good Feng Shui, avoid using cacti at all costs. Why? Because the negativities brought by this plant are thought to damage your sense of security and create discomfort.

How Indoor Plants Can Inspire Good Feng Shui

The Chinese follow Feng Shui’s principles to balance the energy in their environment and ensure it flows. When used in your home, good Feng Shui can make your household more energized and balanced.

The section below provides tips to inspire good Feng Shui and choose the right plants.

Feng Shui with Plants to Counteract Negative Energy

One of the most common uses of Feng Shui is to combat negative energy and create room for positive energy. You can experience this benefit by placing a plant about three feet from your computer to filter electromagnetic energy. Plants are living, breathing beings that can effectively radiate harmful energy.

To counteract negative energy at home, look for the following plants:

• Aloe Vera: This plant is popular for reducing toxic chemicals and cleaning the air. Aside from counteracting negative energy, Aloe Vera plants can also combat bad luck and create a more positive space indoors.
• Jasmine: Placing jasmine near a south-facing window can help evoke positive romantic feelings. Because of its fragrance, jasmine can also help build romance, strengthen relationships, and calm a stressed mind.
• Bamboo: For Feng Shui enthusiasts, bamboo is considered the Holy Grail. This plant brings wise energy and peace to your home and showcases flexibility.

Connect With Nature

Spending time with nature can provide many health benefits, yet not everyone has the time to be outside. However, if you’re one of them, fret not! Some plants allow you to connect with nature while creating good Feng Shui.

If you’re looking for easy and effective ways to connect with nature, add the following plants to your indoor garden:

• Philodendron: Its heart-shaped leaves represent the fire element and can effectively add emotion to cold or dim areas of your home.
• Calatheas: Aside from being excellent home decor, Calatheas promote a better indoor environment because it purifies the air and removes toxins.
• Jade Plant: Also known as the money tree, placing Jade in your home is a great way to improve your financial health. Jade is also associated with health and fame.

Feng Shui with Plants to Balance Space

It’s vital to balance all five elements to create good Feng Shui. Having too much or too little of one element in your home can create negative energy in the space. Any imbalances of the five elements is said to also have adverse effects on your family’s emotional, physical, and mental health.

For areas with excessive water elements, such as your laundry areas and bathrooms, use indoor plants to balance the space. Keep your bathroom doors, and toilet seat closed at all times so the space can absorb the plants’ positive energy.

Get these plants if you want to balance your space indoors:

• Pothos: Also called the devil’s ivy, photos can easily collect stagnant water and dead energy. This plant is easy to grow, perfect if you’re a forgetful waterer or have a limited time for watering plants.
• Peace lily: As the name suggests, peace lilies can improve the flow of positive energy in your home. This elegant plant can also neutralize harmful indoor gases and is best placed in dark areas with minimal light.
• Air plant: Air plants can absorb radiation from your devices and make your home feel calmer.

Start Learning about Feng Shui with Plants

Feng Shui can improve the energy flowing inside your home and the wellness of your entire household. However, good Feng Shui with plants requires knowledge on what plants to use, where to place them, and how the five elements work. Not knowing these things can make your indoor garden look and feel negative. The information in this article intends to educate you on such topics. Now, go utilize your indoor garden as a space that showcases good Feng Shui!

5 Frequently Asked Questions About Feng Shui with Plants

Achieving good Feng Shui through an indoor garden can be tricky, but it’s possible. This FAQ section on indoor plant Feng Shui can help you get started and ensure that your efforts are successful.