Summer Rayne Oakes moved to New York City as a model, not expecting it to be permanent, but 15 years and over 1,100 plants later, she’s created an urban forest in the Brooklyn apartment she calls home.

“Growing up in the country, close to nature and my mother’s collection of National Geographic magazines, I had never imagined myself living in the city for so long… I think a lot of people are like me—rural transplants in an urban environment, seeking a way to live more sustainably and in sync with nature. Even for those of us who have never stepped barefoot on a blade of grass, there’s something inherently in us that is connected to nature—on a much deeper, biological level.”

[Summer’s youtube channel Plant One On Me. Footage credit: Sander van Dijk, Georegulus Design]