“I often say taking care of my plants is like a moving meditation. It’s relaxing, calming, interesting and HWNǪNNKPI CNN CV QPEGƼ
Words: Katie Allen Photography: Homestead Brooklyn / Joey L
Summer Rayne Oakes takes a love of houseplants to the next level. Currently the owner of more than a thousand plants in her Brooklyn apartment, she is also the host and producer of YouTube plant advice channel Plant One On Me. Her blog and Instagram (@homesteadbrooklyn) are some of the best places to go online for plant-based inspiration and advice.
The author of forthcoming book How To Make A Plant Love You, Summer trained in environmental science and entomology, and has years of experience trying to make the world a more sustainable place to live, including with her work as a business owner and as the world’s first ‘eco model’. She describes her mission as helping people “become more attuned to nature in the city through something as humble as a houseplant”.
She says, “Helping connect people back to nature, to live a more mindful existence, to build healthier systems – that all resonates with me.”
Inspiring and friendly, Summer let us into her busy day to talk all things green…
Can you tell us a little about where your love of plants comes from?
I grew up in the country and was fortunate to live next to farm, field and forest, which provided a perfect playground for me. My parents had a garden and little orchard too, so you can say I was pretty much surrounded by plants. I was intensely inquisitive about everything around me, including plants, of course.
Do you remember the first thing you grew?
As a family, my parents grew almost everything – flowers such as hyacinths, peonies and Johnny jump-ups (violas) – to veggies like zucchini (courgette), asparagus and garlic. I loved the fruit trees too. We’d get cherries, apples and gooseberries almost every year. We had indoor plants too, but I didn’t really start my indoor collection until I moved to New York City.
You have more than a thousand plants. How did that come about?
As a kid, I would create little living ecosystems indoors – almost like dioramas – to grow plants and raise insects. In college, I would often take the biology experiments home with me, from ferns to leeches (the latter wasn’t really looked on as kindly by my college room-mate!).
I’ve been collecting and growing plants for about ten years now – ev
