How to Make a Plant Love You

How to Make a Plant Love You by Summer Rayne Oakes is a guide for those looking to bring nature indoors. Summer Rayne Oakes, an urban houseplant expert and environmental scientist, has been profiled by the New York Times as an icon for wellness-minded millennials. She has managed to cultivate 1,000 houseplants in her Brooklyn apartment, ensuring that all are thriving. Her secret? She approaches her relationships with plants as intentionally as if they were people.

Everyone deserves to experience the inner peace that comes from taking care of greenery. Beyond the obvious benefits of beauty and cleaner air, nurturing plants offers strong psychological advantages as a path to mindfulness. They help reduce our stress levels, lower blood pressure, and improve our overall outlook, providing a unique opportunity to find joy in caring for another living being.

When Summer moved to Brooklyn from the Pennsylvania countryside, she realised that bringing nature indoors was essential for her wellbeing. She discovered plants by the side of the road, in forgotten window boxes, at farmers' markets, and in local garden shops. She found creative ways to shelve, hang, tuck, anchor, secure, and suspend them. To manage her urban oasis, she installed a 150-foot expandable hose connected to her kitchen sink pipes, allowing her to spend about half an hour a day tending to her plants—an activity she describes as a "moving meditation."

This guidebook is designed to help cultivate a new relationship with your plant children. Inside, you will learn to:

• Pause for the flowers and greenery around you, even those sprouting bravely between cracked pavement.
• Trust that your apartment jungle offers more than just pretty decor.
• See the world from a plant's perspective, opting for sustainability over modern consumerism.
• Serve your chlorophyllic friends by learning to identify the right species for your home and recreate their natural habitat, ensuring your indoor garden thrives.

Becoming a plant parent also means becoming a better caretaker of ourselves, those around us, and our planet. Let's explore the world of plants and discover how we can cultivate our own green space—in our homes, minds, and hearts.