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Growing Mondays: Be an oasis
Life creates conditions for more life
Jo Hunter Adams
March 17, 2025
Hi! I'm Jo, writing from Heart & Soil homestead, a 1-acre homestead in the Far South of Cape Town, South Africa. Every week I share inspiration and education for your growing journey. Thanks so much for reading!
Welcome to Growing Mondays, where I share ideas to help you grow edible and medicinal plants.
And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth.
Banana bunch. So tiny, but so sweet.
If all the water and organic matter that enters your land stays and slowly percolates, you can create oases that impact your whole community.
Create Oases, be an Oasis
When we moved to our homestead almost 10 years ago, it was impossible for a banana plant to grow. In fact, it was impossible for most things to grow.
Too much wind, beach sand for soil meant no nutrients, the mole rats ate banana roots almost immediately, and couldn’t get enough water for them to be happy because the water disappeared as fast as it arrived.
In fact, only Port Jackson wanted to grow here. And our neighbours weren't too keen on that (hence goats...).
But slowly, nutrients started to concentrate in little pockets. Our greywater, our rainwater, mulch and compost, including humanure, slowly percolated through our homestead, and over the years, the water and nutrients added up.
At first, pockets of concentrated water and nutrients felt like mini oases. Nothing big. One metre square at most. Slowly, hardy trees survived in those concentrations of nutrients, water and wind protection. The hardy trees provided some wind protection to the next tree or plant, and provided friendship to slightly less hardy trees. The moisture holding capacity of the soil slowly improved. And on and on.
Until now: bananas. After all these years, we now have eight bananas bearing bunches simultaneously. I use bananas as an example because they hate wind and love water.
If you can retain the water and nutrients that arrive on your property, the water and nutrients become life, and life creates more nutrients and more life, in a virtuous cycle. This even reaches beyond your space to your community. You normalise composting, and become a source of plants that were previously hard to find in your area.
The key is the movement and growth. You can’t hoard or ignore nutrients and water, they have to flow, be used, transform. If they stagnate, they will still create life, but sometimes also pests (mosquitoes, rats, flies, anaerobic bacteria).
Here’s to being and becoming oases, wherever you are. Have a great week.
Every morning at 845 I walk with our kids around the homestead. Our homestead is not exactly huge, so it only takes a few minutes. But it’s a fun ritual. We get to see tiny changes. Do you remember swivel chameleon? She disappeared for a couple of days, and then one morning a few days ago, we discovered 7 baby chameleons spread across her wild dagga plant.
Workshops
29 March 9-10:30 Food Forest Workshop |
Frieda the rooster gets cozy on our wood shavings. His Man Cave, apparently.
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