Urban Jungle Bloggers

Hi everyone! We’re back with our second Planty Profile, a new blog series in which we open our website to the Urban Jungle Bloggers community and share planty stories from our fellow bloggers. Katrin is a freelance graphic designer, illustrator, photographer and artist living in Cologne in Germany.

Can you tell us a bit more about your blog?
I started my blog Daily Perfect Moment in 2012 in a difficult time in my life (finding a good moment each day was one of my goals, hence the blog’s name) and it’s developing ever since. It is a mix of personal things and the creative work I do, including design, photography, and art. I work with a lot of artists, so when I get the chance I try to give an insight into their work as well, I visit exhibitions and design fairs, and do collaborations. I get a lot of inspiration from the blog, my readers and their feedback and I’m really grateful for that. I feel like the more the blog develops, the more I’m developing too.

How many plants do you have?
I have a big terrace with lots of flower pots during summer. In my flat I have around 20 planty friends living with me.

And which one is your favorite?
My favourites are my two fig trees. I have lived with them for about two years now, and I love them because they give me that summer vibe.

If you could have any plant in the world, which one would it be?
A lotus flower, and a little lake around it, and a little sunny garden around the lake … but I’m happy with every new plant that finds its way to my home.

Did you ever kill a plant? How?
Well, to be honest, every zucchini I’m planting on my terrace in summer is doomed to be a snail victim, but I tried it for several years. And since I’m traveling a lot for my work, some of my plants haven’t survived my absence. Can we change the topic?

What would you like to learn about plants?
Oh, so much. Right now, I have a very small garden with nearly no sun. All that grew there was moss – even growing grass wasn’t possible. I was successful in planting some ground covering plants and found a niche where a colombine (Aquilegia) seems to survive, plus my lavender and tarragon do pretty well. But I would love to learn more about how to grow more plants there.

What’s your favorite style of plant pots?
I love old terracotta pots, the last ones – really large ones – I found in the bulk rubbish of my neighbors and spent a happy afternoon with replanting. Otherwise I find a lot of plants and plant pots on the flea markets around here.

Your favorite UJB topic so far?
That’s a tough question because I loved all topics so far, but maybe plants and art was my favourite?

Do you have an hilarious planty story you want to share with us?
Many years ago, when I moved into a new flat, I inherited a very old rubber plant from my previous tenant, which just had two leaves left and looked like a mangy street cat. I tried for about two years to make it healthy and happy, but in vain. So, in a dark night, I took the rubber plant to a playground and placed it in between the plants there, hoping that sun and rain might inspire it to grow more leaves. I felt so bad for abandoning it that I couldn’t sleep all night and got up early in the morning to fetch it back. But somebody must have adopted it during the night, it was gone.

Thank you Katrin for opening up to us about your plants. We hope your rubber plant is having a great time at its new plant friend!

You can find Katrin on her blog Daily Perfect Moment or Tumblr.

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One of our goals for 2016 was to open up our website to the Urban Jungle Bloggers community and share planty stories from our fellow bloggers. So here we are with our very first Planty Profile and our first guest is Nora: an Italian architect and design blogger from Design Outfit. She was born in Rome and still lives there, surrounded by ancient ruins, history and contemporary contradiction.

Can you tell us a bit more about your blog?
My blog is Design Outfit, it’s online since February 2013 so it’s turning three next month (how time flies!). Main topics are design and architecture, with a little bit of traveling, lifestyle and kids’ stuff. Since my first post for UJB last Easter, Design Outfit also became green and plant lover.

How many plants do you have?
I have just a few plants. I wasn’t born green fingers (my original fingers are black instead!) and I began to be involved in plant matters just recently. The main reason is that my kids are fond of gardening and I have to learn and show them how to take care of plants. The second reason is that I’m in love with flowers (tulips are my favorite!) and I’d like to read up about and to improve my little home garden. Getting to the point, I’ve about ten plants among the indoor and outdoor ones.

And which one is your favorite?
There’s not a favorite one because I’m very inconstant about my passions. One day I’m in love with succulents, one day with flowers and suddenly with green plants. But most of the time I’m in love with all of them! The most long lasting plant that I’ve ever had has been living with me for about five years. It’s a succulent plant that I’ve on my balcony and it’s from Venice, the city where I had been living and studying for four years.

If you could have any plant in the world, which one would it be?
I’m very curious about exotic and aquatic plants and, at the same time, I’m passionate about art and impressionist painters. So, remembering Monet, I’d like to have a little lake with some pure and white water lilies.

Did you ever kill a plant? How?
Unfortunately you can be sure of this! It happens often during summer holidays, when my family and I are away from home for a long time. In that occasion I usually find a new home to my plants, but if I can’t for all of them, disaster happens and I can’t do anything to prevent that!

What would you like to learn about plants?
As I said at the beginning of the interview, I’ve a lot to learn. I think that a Gardening for Dummies guide would be perfect for me! Perhaps it would be interesting to collect some expert UJB tips in a sort of green handbook for the readers…

What’s your favorite style of plant pots?
I start by saying that I usually use cups, mugs and little baskets as plant pots. For brand new pots I prefer ceramic ones: I love all pastel colors and simple Scandinavian shapes. Online shops are design mines and I often spend a lot of time browsing catalogues and finding my favorite objects and accessories.

Your favorite UJB topic so far?
My favourite UJB so far is, without a doubt: Show your plant gang. I played with succulents and assigned every plant to a member of my family. It was very funny because my little kids, Francesco and Fabio, were exactly alike their green twins.

Do you have a suggestion for a future UJB topic?
Perhaps I’d like to write and show some images about the connection between plants and architecture: green facades, houses surrounded by the green, tree houses…

Thank you Nora for being the very first to open up to us about your plants. We completely relate to your “standing on chairs” behind-the-scenes situation 😉

You can find Nora on Instagram – Twitter – Facebook – Pinterest and her blog Design Outfit.

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