The Future of Workplace Wellbeing Is Growing on Our Desks

By Donna Letier, Co-Founder & CEO, Gardenuity

What if one of the most meaningful workplace wellbeing tools wasn’t another app, another meeting, or another item on our to-do list?

What if it was something living, quietly growing on our desks?

This week, The Wall Street Journal published an article by Ray Smith  about companies introducing desk plants and gardening experiences to help improve employee morale and wellbeing. I was delighted to see Gardenuity included in the conversation.

“Whenever Karen Rose felt stressed at work, she would take a minute and walk out of her office building. It helped—kind of.

For the past few months, she has had a more-effective way to de-stress, without ever leaving the office: a little tropical garden at her desk, containing a bella palm, a philodendron and a calathea.

The desk garden is a perk provided by her company, one of many businesses encouraging their employees to engage with plants, at the office or at home, as a wellness benefit. 

“It’s definitely helped,” says Rose, a senior project manager for a company in Bentonville, Ark., that installs and maintains cables for routers and other networking equipment. “I can just take my focus away from some of those stressful moments and put my attention on my plants.”

Another benefit: “I am screen-facing the majority of my day, and getting to take care of my plants gives me a moment away from the screens,” she says.”  -Ray Smith

But what excited me most wasn’t the attention desk plants were receiving.

It was the recognition of something we’ve believed since starting Gardenuity: Nature doesn’t have to be somewhere we go to feel better. It can be something we bring into the places where we spend our days.

And perhaps even more importantly, something we actively participate in.

We’ve Made Wellbeing Another Thing to Do

Think about how we approach wellbeing in the workplace.

We encourage employees to take breaks, practice mindfulness, manage stress, disconnect from technology, and make time for self-care.

All worthwhile. All important. But somewhere along the way, wellbeing can start to feel like another responsibility on an already crowded calendar. Another thing to schedule. Another goal to achieve. Another measure of how well we’re taking care of ourselves.

I believe there’s an opportunity to approach it differently.

What if we made wellbeing more accessible by weaving small moments of restoration into the workday itself? Not by asking employees to do more, but by giving them opportunities to pause. A garden on a desk offers exactly that. It doesn’t send notifications. It doesn’t require a login. It doesn’t measure productivity.

It simply grows.

And in doing so, it invites us to slow down long enough to notice.

The Science Behind a Three-Minute Pause

There’s growing research supporting the relationship between indoor plants and wellbeing.

A 2020 study published in HortTechnology followed 63 office workers in Japan and examined the effects of introducing small plants to their desks.

Participants were encouraged to take three-minute breaks when they felt fatigued. During the plant intervention, they could look at and care for their plants.

Researchers found reductions in measures of psychological stress and improvements in pulse-rate responses for some participants.

It’s a relatively small study, and we shouldn’t interpret it as proof that a plant can solve workplace stress. But the findings offer an encouraging insight: even brief, intentional interactions with nature may help us recover during demanding workdays.

A separate study published in 2023 examined plants in workplaces across multiple organizations in the Netherlands. Researchers found improvements in employees’ satisfaction with their workspace and other aspects of their workplace experience, although not every wellbeing measure improved.

The research continues to evolve, but it raises an important question.

If a few minutes with nature can help us feel more restored, why wouldn’t we make those moments easier to experience?

The Difference Between Having a Plant and Tending a Garden

At Gardenuity, we’ve always believed there’s an important distinction between placing a plant in a room and inviting someone to grow something.

One is about the environment. The other is about participation. When you care for a garden, even a small one, something changes. You notice when the soil needs water. You turn a leaf toward the light.

You discover new growth that wasn’t there yesterday. You learn that some things need attention, while others simply need time. And for a few moments, your attention moves away from the demands of the day and toward something living.

That’s why I often say gardening makes being present something we do, not simply something we try to achieve.

We don’t have to become experts at mindfulness to experience a moment of presence.

Sometimes we just have to notice a new leaf.

What We’ve Learned Bringing Gardens Into Workplaces

One of my favorite parts of building Gardenuity has been watching what happens when people come together to garden.

We’ve had the privilege of working with organizations across industries, bringing hands-on gardening experiences to employees, leadership teams, and workplace communities.

And while every group is different, there’s something wonderfully familiar about what happens when the gardening begins.

People put down their phones.

Conversations start.

Someone asks a question about a plant. Someone else shares a memory of a garden they grew up with. People who may spend their days discussing deadlines and deliverables suddenly find themselves talking about something entirely different.

Something human.

What I love most is that the experience doesn’t end when the workshop does.

The garden goes home or back to the desk.

The employee continues caring for it.

And what began as a shared experience becomes a personal ritual.

A reason to pause between meetings. A moment to look away from a screen. A reminder that growth is happening, even when we can’t see it.

The workshop may last 45 minutes. The opportunity to nurture wellbeing can continue long afterward.

What If We Measured Workplace Wellbeing Differently?

As a founder, I spend a great deal of time thinking about how organizations define success.

We measure participation. Engagement. Utilization. Outcomes. And we should. Workplace wellbeing investments deserve thoughtful evaluation. But I also wonder whether some of the most meaningful benefits happen in moments that are harder to measure.

The employee who takes three minutes to tend a garden rather than scrolling through another notification.

The colleague who stops by someone’s desk to admire a new bloom.

The team that discovers a shared interest in growing something.

The person who realizes that taking care of something living is also a reminder to take care of themselves.

These moments may seem small.

But workplace culture is built through everyday experiences, not simply through annual initiatives. And when those experiences help people feel more connected, more present, and more supported, they’re worth paying attention to.

A desktop garden isn’t a replacement for meaningful mental health benefits, supportive leadership, or a healthy workplace culture. But it can be one small, accessible part of creating an environment where wellbeing is practiced, not simply promoted.

The Future of Work Needs More Nature, Not Just More Technology

We’re living through an extraordinary moment in the evolution of work.

Artificial intelligence is changing how we solve problems, communicate, and manage our time. Technology continues to make us faster and more efficient.

But as work becomes increasingly digital, I believe our need for tangible, human experiences becomes even more important.

We need opportunities to use our hands.

To notice the world around us.

To experience progress that can’t be accelerated with a prompt.

To remember that not everything meaningful happens on a screen.

Gardening offers all of those things.

A plant grows on its own timeline. It responds to care, light, and its environment. We can support its growth, but we can’t force it.

There’s something reassuring about that, especially in a world that asks us to move faster every day.

Growing What Matters

When we started Gardenuity, our mission was to make gardening and its wellbeing benefits accessible to everyone.

That mission has taken us into homes, offices, classrooms, and workplaces across the country.

And along the way, one belief has only grown stronger.

We don’t need to make wellbeing more complicated.

We need to make it more accessible, more personal, and more naturally woven into everyday life.

I’m encouraged to see workplace leaders recognizing the role nature can play in that effort.

Because the future of workplace wellbeing may not begin with a sweeping new initiative.

It may begin with a small garden on a desk.

A new leaf.

A three-minute pause.

A moment to notice.

Desk plants may be having a moment. But the moments they create are what really matter.

And those are moments worth growing.

Gardenuity, a company making the wellbeing benefits of gardening accessible through personalized gardens, guided growing experiences, and workplace wellness programs.