Growing Mondays: To experience abundance, narrow your focus to the essentials

Abundance is here

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.

The 3 big lies: 1) I am what I have. 2) I am what I do. 3) I am what other people say or think of me.

Henri Nouwen

Giant cauliflowers coming through. Cauliflower wants a lot of love, nutrients, and space, and to be planted immediately as the warm weather crops are starting to come out.

Produce this weekend. Beetroot sourdough was super fun. I’m thinking of making kimchi sourdough for Sunday, and would love some ideas on other cool sourdough bread adapatations you’d like to try.

Growing and producing allows us to feel abundance because through it we tap into natural cycles, where there is always enough- enough attention, food, time and even love to go around.

Experiencing abundance in growing requires focus on the essentials.

We are not what we have, not what we do, nor what other people say or think about us.

We are all so much more. Yet actually experiencing this abundance requires some focus.

Growing and preparing food for our loved ones is a way to get back to the basics of abundance. We have the ability, right now, to deeply attend to our basic needs: food, water, belonging, purpose, love.

Sometimes in gardening I also grapple with the three big lies: I become overly proud of my perceived knowledge, or how much broccoli I grew, or how many bottles of tomato sauce I have on the shelf. So it takes some focus to get back to basics.

The basics: When we’re growing there’s a power, much like the power of a giant wave, beneath us, carrying us. Commercial agriculture tries to direct and control this wave, which is as futile and delusional, long-term, as it sounds. At it’s best, growing should be about learning to ride the wave, ride the seasons, ride atop natural systems. Knowing we are never fully in control, and that sometimes we’ll fail, and that there’ll always be another wave.

Speaking of abundance, these carrots are grown from the seeds of just 2 carrots:

Carrot bed 1

Carrot bed 2

Carrot bed 3. All from seed from just 2 carrots.

Upcoming Workshops

Let me know if there’s a workshop you’re waiting for, or if you’d like to organise a group for a workshop.


7 June 9-10:30 Veg growing workshop (4 spaces left)
5 July 9-10:30 Kimchi making workshop
12 July 9-10:30 Sourdough bread workshop

Eli’s latest painting. Thanks to community, he keeps on improving and exploring new styles. eliadams.co.za

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