Page 45 - Lighting Magazine February 2018

Green Dining
Garden Design magazine recently pointed
out a trend it calls “rethinking alfresco dining,” referring to a new preference for forming dining spaces away from the typical back deck and patio and more toward enclosed garden areas or under pergolas deeper in the yard.
“Many people automatically design outdoor dining spaces right o the back of the house, but making an all-inclusive destination
within the landscape immerses people in
the ambience. It makes for a more luxurious experience and guests get to see more of your garden,” noted Di Zock of Di Zock Design in Los Angeles in the Garden Design magazine article.
Other suggestions by Garden Design for bringing nature to the dinner table is to surround the room with in-ground and container plants or adding special ooring, lighting, and furniture that enhances the natural environment.
Create a Zen Zone
One of the ways homeowners are nding peace in their hectic lives
is by making a backyard oasis. To maintain privacy, many are opting to form an enclosure using lush plants as a barrier that surrounds casual, but comfortable seating for contemplative thinking, meditation, or for reading a book. When it comes to forming an enclosed garden, they are choosing plants that are hardy enough to stand up to today’s punishing weather extremes and that look good all year long.
Breathing Room
Garden Media cited a recent study from the State University of New York at Oswego that a rmed that plants help people breathe easier indoors and support health and well-being. “Buildings, whether new or old, can have high levels of VOCs (volatile organic compounds) in them, sometimes so high that you can smell them,” said the leader of the study Vadoud Niri, Ph.D. Certain plants can reportedly remove up to 80 percent of common VOCs. A high concentration of VOCs can lead to health problems such as dizziness, asthma, or allergies.
For that reason, Garden Media Group sees a rise in the amount of hanging gardens and ower pot pendants indoors near a window leading to the backyard or in the kitchen.
According to Garden Media Group, the stress of everyone being “connected” through smart devices and the Internet has led to a desire for an area where one can “turn o the noise.” Enter what they dubbed, “The Breathing Room.” The group estimates 52 percent of the American population uses plants to “clean the air and clear the mind.” These rooms reportedly enable people to connect with nature and create a small oasis inside the home.
In fact, IKEA’s Space 10 lab unveiled a DIY indoor garden called Growroom that stands nine feet high and is a at-pack spherical garden that grows plants, veggies, and herbs.
February 2018 | enLIGHTenment Magazine 41