Summer Rayne Oakes keeps 700 live houseplants spanning 400 species in her Brooklyn apartment. She's an environmental scientist, an entrepreneur, and (according to a New York Times profile) the icon of wellness-minded millennials who want to bring nature indoors. She even made her own irrigation system, using a 150-foot hose that connects to pipes under her kitchen sink, so she only has to spend about a half-hour a day tending to her plants.
This isn't an interior design book about hanging ivy on your window sills. It's about the real reasons that it's good for you to bring plants inside. Most people think that the common potted plant is just a decorative object, but there's also a strong psychological benefit to taking care of plants as a path to mindfulness. Taking care of other living things is a basic human need. Urban millennials with weaker community networks than previous generations just don't have the chance to do that.
This book ties together all the known benefits of taking care of plants (lower blood pressure, lower stress, cleaner air) with a bigger, less obvious benefit- Taking care of plants makes you a more life-giving person. Through colorful vignettes that draw us into the mysteries and hidden stories of our plants, Summer shows how our chlorophyllic friends can serve as a gateway to a greater life.
Who doesn't want to cultivate beauty, care for the natural world, and live mindfully in these crazy times? Summer Rayne Oakes shows us the way.
