Having More Plants at Home During the Covid-19 Pandemic : Is It Just Following A Trend ?

The Covid-19 pandemic has drastically changed the social and environmental conditions. People should stay at home for self-isolation and social distancing to avoid the spread of Covid-19. People tend to have more plants at home associated with psychological impact during self-isolation. This study aimed to describe having more plants during the Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia. A nationwide cross-sectional survey involving an online survey was carried out of an Indonesian population-based sample of 412 respondents from 26 provinces, considered demographic, social, and behavioral variables. The variable affecting the having plants during the Covid-19 pandemic was analyzed using non-parametric analysis of the Kruskal Wallis test. The result showed that people preferred having more plants during the Covid-19 pandemic to reduce negative emotions and feelings. The majority of the respondents tend to have 1-10 plants and spend around <100 K (IDR) monthly to maintain and buy plants. They think that efforts to maintain were the most challenging in gardening activities. The majority of the respondents had potted plants at home to make their homes greener. The Kruskal Wallis test showed theÃÂ p-valueÃÂ (>0.05) for all characteristic respondents. Thus, it can be concluded that there was no significant difference regarding the motivation to have planted during the Covid-19 pandemic from characteristic respondents.


Introduction
This epidemic Covid-19 occurs in all countries in the world. Based on the World Health Organization (WHO) data about the outbreak of the Covid-19 disease, there were 242,764,798 coronavirus cases and 4,936,849 deaths as of October 21, 2021 (WHO 2021). Furthermore, Indonesia ranks 14 with 4,237,201 total cases and 143,077 deaths (Worldometer, 2021). The Covid-19 pandemic has drastically changed the social and environmental conditions. The Covid-19 pandemic has been going on for more than a year, and people face difficult times with uncertainty about when the Covid-19 pandemic will end. The outbreak of Covid-19 negatively impacts people's physiological health and behavior (Yamada et al. 2020;Serafini et al. 2020;Pedrosa et al. 2020). The adverse effects of self-isolation, social distancing, and stressors during the Covid-19 pandemic are boredom, fear, financial loss, and long-lasting psychological effects, such as confusion, posttraumatic stress symptoms, panic disorders, anger depression, and anxiety (Brooks et al. 2020). According to Rajkumar (2020), during the Covid-19 pandemic, people have reported having symptoms of self-reported stress of 8%, anxiety and depression 16-28%, and sleep disturbance. The COVID-19 pandemic has widely increased the workload for Health Care Workers (HCW), which could cause the impacts on the quality of services and productivity (Arifah et al. 2021). The health risks are unpredictable (Diannita et al. 2020).
In Indonesia, during the Covid-19 pandemic, people's interest in green living increases 40 percent from normal conditions, especially for traders of ornamental plants (Litbang Pertanian, 2020;Bukhorida et al. 2021;Putri et al. 2020). This increase is influenced by the lifestyle of the people who have more time at home, so they have more free time to arrange plants in the yard. According to Novriyanti et al. (2021), people start gardening during the Covid-19 pandemic, where 70% of the total plant growth in the backyard are ornamental plants.
Having plants at home is correlated with more positive emotions during the Covid-19 pandemic (Perez-Urrestarazu et al. 2020). Planting plants in pots can also reduce the adverse effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, namely anger, anxiety, irritability, fear, irritability, and sleep disturbance (Spano et al. 2021;Theodorou et al. 2021). Several studies also reported that individuals had been increasingly engaging in nature activities (Ugolini et al. 2020;Geng et al. 2021;Robinson et al. 2021). On the other hand, no study in Indonesia investigates the relationship between having more plants and mental health issues during the Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia. Based on the description above, an analysis related to mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic is needed. This study aimed to describe having more plants during the Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia. Bringing a close relationship between people and nature will increase the motivation to conserve biodiversity (Afrianto and Najah 2017;Afrianto et al. 2020).

Procedures
The questionnaire was designed anonymously and distributed by using Google Form. The questionnaire consisted of 23 questions divided into four sections, including general information, house profiles, attitudes towards gardening, and emotional states. The questions were the closed-form type and written in a multiple-choice format. The questionnaires were distributed through social networks, such as WhatsApp, Twitter, Linkedin, and Facebook. However, this study did not permit the management of the characteristics of the potential respondents. It allowed a collection of a more significant sample within the tight time limits of the confinement time. The questionnaire was distributed from December 20, 2020, to March 20, 2021. The respondents who answered the questionnaire were dominated from Java Island, i.e., East Java of 82, West Java of 79, Central Java of 65, DKI. Jakarta of 48, D.I. Yogyakarta of 35, and Banten of 22 (Figure 1).

Data analysis
The total number of respondents was 412 respondents from 26 provinces of 34 provinces in Indonesia. After the data was validated, ten respondents were eliminated because of uncompleted answers, so there were 402 a b respondents. Data processing and statistical analysis were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics 25. Responses for attitude toward nature during the Covid-19 pandemic (Q15-Q18) were ranked as (1) strongly disagree, (2) disagree, (3) undecided, (4) agree, and (5) strongly agree. After that, the variables affecting the having plants during the Covid-19 pandemic were analyzed using non-parametric analysis of the Kruskal Wallis test.

Households Profile
During the Covid-19 pandemic, people started to work (36.82%) and school (27.86%) from home, even though some of them still had to work from the office (29.85%) or hybrid from office and home (5.47%) ( Table 2).
Most respondents were currently living in big cities with more than 1,000,0000 inhabitants (48.51%) and small cities with less than 1.000.0000 inhabitants (30.10%), while 21.39% of respondents living in villages/rural areas. Regarding the survey, the majority of respondents were living in standalone's houses (84.83%), followed by rent/boarding (13.43%) and apartments (1.74%). In their house, most respondents were living with 3-4 people (47.01%), 5-6 people (28.36%), 1-2 people (15.67%), and >6 people (8.96%). The respondents described the size of their yards that were medium (47.26%), small (39.30%), and large (13.43%). Respondents also answered that their yard could be used for plantings plants and have enough sunlight 88.56%, while 11.44% of the respondents answered that they had not had enough space for planting plants and had not enough sunlight. When they were asked about Covid-19 experiences, only 6.22% have been impacted Covid-19, while 40.55% of their families/relatives have been affected by Covid-19. Attitude and emotional state toward nature during Covid-19 Before the Covid-19 pandemic, they stated that they visited urban greening (i.e., parks, urban farming, urban forest, and others) with frequency weekly (34.33%), monthly (33.58%), and every day (12.44%). In comparison, 19.65% of the respondents state they never visit the urban green areas (Figure 2). This can also be seen from the majority of respondents saying that they strongly agree (43.78%) and agree (42.04%) that visiting nature is a need for mental health (Q15). In comparison, 2.24% of the respondents strongly disagree, and 0.5% strongly disagree. During the Covid-19 pandemic, people have more plants than before (Q16), respondents agreed with 40.52%. It is because they agree (41,79%) and strongly agree (23,38%) that planting plants is suitable for their mental health (Q17). Moreover, according to the survey, 48,51% of the respondents agree that planting plants at home gives a positive mood or feeling during the COVID-19 pandemic (Q18) (Figure 3). The non-parametric analysis through the Kruskal Wallis test showed the pvalue (>0.05) for all characteristic respondents. Thus, it can be concluded that there was no significant difference regarding the motivation to have planted during the Covid-19 pandemic from characteristic respondents (Table 3).  The most popular type of plants growth was potted plants (59.45%). Other plants, namely horticulture plants (14.68%) and trees (12.19%), also had more than 10%. Obstacles faced by respondents were efforts of maintenance (51.99%), followed by pest and plant diseases (16.42%), cost of maintenance (9.95%), wheatear (5.72%), while 15.92% of the total respondents that they have no obstacles at all (15.92%). More than half of the total respondents used the monthly budget to buy and maintain plants in the range <100K (IDR) (67.91%) for 1-10 plants (50.50%) (Figure 4a-d).

Discussion
Based on the demography of the respondents were dominated from Java Island. According to the Indonesian Health Ministry (Kemenkes RI), Jakarta has the highest confirmed death cases rate in Indonesia. In that period, Kemenkes RI reported daily confirmed cases of the highest in Jakarta of 4212 patients (7 February 2021) and 66 death cases (16 February 2021) (Kemenkes 2021). Kemenkes RI also reported that most of the symptoms of Covid-19 that were usually conveyed caught fever, weakness, shortness of breath, headache, flu, sore throat, nausea, muscle cramps, chills, stomach pain, and diarrheic.
To avoid the spread of the COVID-19 in Indonesia, the government has made various terms for handling COVID-19. As of April 2020, the government has used at least seven different terms. From the large social activity (PSBB) on April 17, 2020, to the latest implementation of the Implementation of Activity Restrictions Community Activities (PPKM) Java-Bali from July 3, 2021 (Kompas 2021). Thus, people did their activities such as school or work mostly at home (Table 4).
Urban green space areas have several functions for physical, mental health, and wellbeing (Lee and Maheswaran 2011;Afrianto and Tamnge 2015;Lee et al. 2015;Dzhambov et al. 2018;Kondo et al. 2018;Southon et al. 2018;Afrianto et al. 2021). This can also be seen from the majority of respondents saying that they strongly agree (43.78%) and agree (42.04%) that visiting nature is necessary for mental health. Most of the respondents were young 26-40 years (46.52%) and 18-25 (39.05%). According to Roe et al. (2017), coping with stress on low-stress youth is characterized by "finding friends" and "going out". For young age, green space areas can play critical roles in social aspects that make contacts and friends (Seeland et al. 2009). However, mid-age has the perception that urban green space is associated with psychological well-being (Cleary et al. 2019). According to Soga et al. (2020), having a window to see the green view at home improved the wide range of mental health issues during the Covid-19 pandemic. In this study, the respondents also show that they frequently visit at least weekly (34.33%) or monthly (33.58%) before the Covid-19 pandemic. People who had come to urban green spaces within the past two weeks were associated with higher positive emotions (Hong et al. 2019).
The urban green areas are closed to avoid the spreading of Covid-19. Thus, people start to feel bored and do other positive activities, such as gardening in their homes. It can be seen that the respondents state they agree (40.52%) to have more plants in their homes. The most popular type of plants growth was potted plants (59.45%). According to Fauzi et al. (2021), the factors that influence the purchase decision of ornamental plants are psychological variables, lifestyle, income, and type of work. The demand for several plants, especially potted plants, is increasing up to 85% (Bukhorida and Febriani 2021). Some of the viral potted plants during the Covid-19 pandemic include Aglaonema, Monstera, Caladium, and others. As a marketing strategy and to make it interested/ear-catching, plant breeders give unique names such as Rabbit Caladium, Rat Caladium, Wayang Caladium, Doraemon Pocket Caladium, and others. On the other hand, respondents also grow horticulture plants (14.68%), trees (12.19%), and herbs (2.49%). It can support the Sustainable Food Garden's Government Program (Pekarangan Pangan Lestari/P2L). Planting these various plants can advance food and nutritional security during and after the Covid-19 pandemic (Khan et al. 2020;Lal 2020;Meija et al. 2020;Nicola et al. 2020;Giraud et al. 2021;Mullins et al. 2021).
A lack of agronomical knowledge and effort to maintain was the main obstacle to having plants at home. For example, when pests and plant diseases attack their plants, respondents do not understand handling them. People tended to have only 1-10 plants and spent the lowest budget around <100 (IDR). The online webinar increases significantly on several platforms during the Covid-19 pandemic, such as Instagram, Facebook, Zoom, Google Meeting, and Youtube (Reis et al. 2020). The agriculture topic has also been taking place with courses intended for the general audience. Thus, technology can solve their obstacles in growing plants. According to Sofo and Sofo (2020), having a plant can be personal satisfaction and save money in the medium term.
Respondents agree (41,79%) and strongly agree (23,38%) that having more plants can improve their mental health outcome, and also 48,51% of the respondents had a more positive feeling by having more plants in their home. Lades et al. (2020) argued that gardening is one the most effective activities to decrease the negative emotions during self-isolation and physical distancing. Similar to that, Amborose et al. (2020) stated that people who do gardening activities expressed high emotional well-being, similar to other activities, such as biking and walking. Having plants indoors can also purify the air condition that impacts an increase in better feeling (Erzsebet et al. 2013;Han and Ruan 2019). People can feel less anxious and nervous with indoor plants and greenery conditions (Chang and Chen 2005). The percentage of respondents who were students was 24.13%. According to Dzhambov et al. (2020), students exposed to greenery have better mental health conditions during their stay at home.
In this study, the highest percentage of positive emotion was "calmness" (33.58%), and the negative sentiment was "stress" (21.89%). People live in rural areas expressed lower negative feelings (Perez-Urrestarazua et al. 2021). It is because they are exposed to a greener landscape than urban people. However, in this study, most of the respondents live in urban areas, and they feel calm because they think the spread is still under control as long as they follow health protocol for Covid-19. In the policy mechanism, governors/regents/mayors enforce PSBB, including school and workplace from home, restrictions on religious activities, restrictions on activities in public places or facilities, restrictions on social and cultural activities, restrictions on transportation modes, and restrictions on other activities related explicitly to defense and security aspects. Only essential sectors were allowed to be fully operational. Initially, all works had to be done from home and allowed the office to work from an office (WFO) up to 50% capacity, transportation capacity 50 percent, restaurants were allowed to dine-in up to certain hours.

September to October
The rules were the same, but the name was changed to be Strict Large-Scale Social Restrictions. October 2020 to January 2021.
The rules were the same, but the name was changed to be Transitional Large-Scale Social Restrictions 2.

Conclusion
In conclusion, during the Covid-19 pandemic, most respondents intended to have more plants because they should self-isolation and social distance. They think that it can provide a more positive mood and feeling. Most of the respondent's state that they preferred to have potted plants, horticulture, and trees with an average of 1-10 plants at home. They spent monthly budgeting on buying and maintaining <100K (IDR), and half of the total respondents feel that maintaining is the obstacle in gardening. In this study, the highest percentage of positive emotion was "calmness" and the negative sentiment was "stress".