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Growing Mondays: Find ways to remember

Growing Mondays: Find ways to remember

Create systems to remember times of growth.

Jo Hunter Adams
March 24, 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.

Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant.

Robin Sharma

End of pepper season, beginning of autumn planting

❝

We are hardwired to remember failures more than successes. Take some time today to relish and record some successes, and see how you can build on them.

Summer success, winter growth

We’re headed into autumn planting, which can be glorious and it can be difficult. The challenge is, we’re hardwired to remember our failures more than our successes. It makes sense that our ancestors would want to remember how to escape danger and survive. For most of us, however, remembering our successes is more difficult and more important.

For example, I often meet people who don’t grow brassicas (Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage) because they believe they can’t. Yet often when they keep trying, they find they’re just as good as any grower!

Napa cabbage planted two weeks ago.

I’d recommend staggering a few plantings over autumn, because it’s hard to predict when the pests will peak, and it’s even hard to predict when your compost levels will reach the right moisture content to make nutrients available to your plants, and so on.

And yet…

Amidst the complexity, it is the multiple attempts that matters. If you keep going, you are almost guaranteed to succeed.

And one of the best ways to maintain your enthusiasm is to record your successes somehow. Photos, notes, whatever works best for you. Here’s to relishing the successes of the summer, and moving into autumn together.