The Story of Plants Africa
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What is Plants Africa?
Plants Africa is a South African plant nursery and permaculture farm, situated in the Eastern Cape city of Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown).
We specialise in succulents and other water-wise and drought-tolerant plants. While indigenous plants are certainly our main focus, we also propagate plants from around the world.
You can browse and purchase our plants at anytime:
Online Plant Shop
Purchase the Awesome African Plants
(Delivery anywhere in South African)
Or, you can visit our Plant Content Hub, an exciting and educational digital space where you can learn about plants and the process of growing your very own plant paradise:
Plant Content Hub
Explore Free Multi-Media Content
(Exciting & Educational Info + Videos)
Who is involved?
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When did it start?
The seeds of my appreciation of plants were sown in my childhood years of playing with friends in various gardens. Many of the families within our circle took pride in creating awesome gardens, and as a child it was magical to run around and play within them.
Looking back, many of my best memories were formed around good human company and being surrounded by a safe, green, and living environment.
In 2007 we moved from our home in town to our small farm (small-holding just out of town). I was about 12 years old at this stage.
Over the years I gradually learnt more about plants through the internet, books, experimentation, and learning from other plant people.
We spent many years gradually building up our plant collection, establishing new beds, and feeding to soil.
We experienced quite a devastating setback in 2014 when a raging veld fire caused substantial damage to our garden (while also burning down our carport and garden shed).
Over time we managed to revive our garden, a testament to the resilience of plants and our determination to live in a thriving environment.
I would say that my absolute love and passion for plants truly began to set roots in 2018. This is when I started establishing a food forest within a section of our garden that was mainly just lawn.
Over time I gradually added more beds, planting more trees and other plants.
Eventually, in 2020 I reached the point in time when I was ready to commence the plant-selling aspect of our operation.
Why do we run a plant nursery & farm?
We have experienced first-hand the joy and wonder of learning about and living with plants. We have created a safe, colourful, lively, diverse, and abundant space in which we can grow food, medicine, and share precious experiences with loved ones. Essentially we have realised that we are living in our own paradise, and the feeling of nurturing and growing our green space is so tremendously fulfilling and rewarding that we would like to continue doing it for the rest of our lives.
Each day spent working with the plants deepens our understanding of how plants are the answer to many of the social, environmental, and economic challenges facing our global human society.
Customer
Testimonials
"Hello, Jethro! My Pelargonia arrived just now. Fresh and fragrant! Thank you so much! Gonna plant these babies right now! A pleasure doing business with you. I'm looking forward to buying lots more in the future! this is so inspiring!
Just want to add, Jethro, that my husband is also blown away by your professionalism and proactive approach to produce and market something so beautiful and meaningful, as these cuttings! Well done and we wish you so much success with this project. All the best to you!"
- Geoff and Robyn
(Robyn is an artist and independent arts critic who purchased some Pelargoniums for a series of artistic drawings. You can find her writing here: My View by Robbyn Sassen)
