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COURIER LIFE, MARCH 25-31, 2022
BY MIKAELA WEGNER
Robert Jeffery, better
known as Planter Rob, has
his own unique way of advocating
for affordable
housing — and it involves
house plants.
Late last month, Planter
Rob partnered with house
plant delivery site The Sill
to donate almost 200 house
plants to Edwin’s Place residents
in Brownsville, and to
host a plant-care workshop
and Q&A at the complex,
which consists of 126 apartments
for homeless and lowincome
individuals, veterans,
and families, according
to homeless outreach organization
Breaking Ground.
The flora aficionado
originally intended to use
his plant workshops as a
platform to foster important
conversation about
racism and social justice,
but is now looking to use
them to help foster affordable
housing opportunities
across the five boroughs.
“I realized a lot of people
in our community, a lot of
plant enthusiasts, tend to
shy away from having those
tough conversations about
racism, and I wanted to
make those conversations
less taboo for us,” Planter
Rob told Brooklyn Paper.
“But I realized that I could
be doing more with that
and … doing something
that was tangible, like actually
bringing people indoors
as well as plants.”
A graduate of Western
Michigan University,
Planter Rob said he was always
“the plant guy,” gifting
greenery to friends and
roommates. But after graduation,
Planter Rob had the
choose between living with
his parents in Alabama, or
“couch surfing” until he
could “get on his feet.” He
chose the latter.
Now 34, Planter Rob
is living in New York, engaged,
and a dad to 80
house plants. Wanting to
“advocate for others” in situations
he experienced, he
set up a way to give back.
Through Planter Rob’s
“Welcome-Home Plants”
program, people can
choose to gift a houseplant
— and access to one of his
workshops — to a permanent
resident associated
with Breaking Ground,
with the ultimate goal of
helping people establish
homes where they might
not feel that they have one.
Beyond that, he hopes his
workshops will inspire
others to advocate for better
housing opportunities
across the Big Apple.
Planter Rob remembers
how buying a plant for his
first home made him feel
“empowered,” and “as if
things were going to get
better.” He also said having
something to nurture
acted as a type of personal
therapy. Beyond personal
growth, Planter Rob said
having house plants introduced
him into an “amazing
community” of fellow plant
lovers, something he wants
to give back to those experiencing
homelessness.
At Edwin’s Place in
February, Planter Rob observed
firsthand the connection
house plants could
make.
“It was amazing how
many residents would come
up to me and just want to
show me their plant,” he
said, noting that, in the
past, gardening has primarily
been an “exclusive
club.” Most people “don’t
have the income to spend
on something that might
die within a week,” he said.
“I want house plants to
be more accessible to people
Planter Robb at his February plant workshop at Edwin’s Place in
Brownsville. Photo by Breaking Ground
that look like me, people
that look like my mother,
that look like my sister, my
brothers,” he said.
A long-term goal of
Planter Rob’s is to have politicians
look to his “plant
followers” to sign petitions
and change policies. He
said this would show he
has created “a community
of plant lovers that are actually
advocating for affordable
housing.”
But between advocating
for social change and
teaching planting basics,
Planter Rob said attitude
is key. “I always want to be
taking up space in a joyous
way because we don’t see
enough of that,” he said.
One man’s mission to combat the
housing crisis — with house plants
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