Plant parents
Hannah Adams holds a shovel while standing alongside her vegetable garden project that she created during quarantine in Berkeley on Oct. 4, 2020. (Emily Curiel / Xpress Media) During quarantine, Adams says that having plants helps with mental and physical health. “It has absolutely helped me out! Even outside of the pandemic, they provide me clean air, they provide me a sense of stability, something to nurture and love and take care of. I would say regarding my vegetable garden that I just started it was definitely a wonderful quarantine project to keep myself preoccupied and off my phone. And really spend time in solitude just with momma Earth.”

I tell people, it’s important to make a plant profile for every type of plant you have. To keep track of the frequency of watering the sunlight it needs. Being organized is important, because sometimes you can mix up the different requirements for each plant. I like to be on the side of under-watering because plants will always tell you if they need more water. Specifically, Pothos, they will get kind of limp, and they will just look kind of soft in their leaves if they need more water.”
— Hannah Adams


Shelter in place kind of ruined a lot of friendships. And not even just friendships, but relationships that I had with people, because it stuck me in my home and there was nowhere to go and nothing to do, and even peers from school didn’t seem like they cared as much when people weren’t around each other. People that you thought were maybe your friends, you weren’t actually as close to as you thought you were. And I found that out when shelter in place happened. I think that also sparked me into buying plants because I felt like no one cared about me. So, I just wanted to have a bond with something else that was alive.”
— Paige Acosta

My collection of plants started because of a desire to just turn my room into a jungle. It’s almost like an obsession now. Now I want more (plants) just for the sake of having something new in my collection.”
— Isaac Arreola




Emily Curiel is a senior photojournalism student currently in San Francisco. Emily lives life through a viewfinder. She has a hummingbird superstition...